Freshman becomes acquainted with Purdue with Day on Campus

Lafayette resident receives taste of college with tour

Jenny Jones/ Summer Reporter LOOKING IT OVER: Amanda Newton, who will be a freshman in the Schools of Engineering in the fall, looks over a list of residence hall requirements with her parents, Cindy and Steve.

By Jenny Jones
Summer Reporter

Amanda Newton lived in Japan last summer, but she discovered at her Day on Campus that, in spite of her past endeavor, she still has anxiety about attending Purdue in the fall.

Newton, a Lafayette resident, won the Youth for Understanding Scholarship in Indiana and lived in Japan, similar to an exchange student, with a host family.

While living in Japan, Newton took part in all the activities that the family did, including going to school with her two host sisters. Newton’s Japanese host parents and classmates, however, spoke a minute amount of English, making it difficult to communicate, which meant Newton was able to exercise the Japanese she learned in high school.

Although Newton lived in Japan and knew an adequate amount of Japanese, she received her first sample of college failure when she took her Japanese test-out examination during her Day on Campus. To her surprise, Newton did not test out of any Japanese classes.

Her test experience coincided with what the Day on Campus advisers told parents at their meeting. The advisers warned parents that their children, for the first time, may be considered average or below average in academics and may encounter failure even that day.

Parents were told how to help their children deal with disappointment by keeping communication open. Newton’s parents did just that by telling her everything would be OK.

Newton, who will be entering the freshmen engineering honors program, decided to attend Purdue before her summer overseas when she participated in the Women in Engineering Career Day on campus. At the career day, Newton heard different women engineers speak about the opportunities Purdue gives to its women in engineering.

She said she was impressed after she heard how prestigious the program is and chose to attend as a chemical engineering student.

During her freshmen year, Newton will live in Earhart Hall on a floor made up entirely of women engineers. During her tour of the dorm while attending Day on Campus, Newton met a woman who will be on her floor and is also in chemical engineering.

In addition to meeting other chemical engineering students at Day on Campus, Newton’s roommate, who’s from Ohio, is also in chemical engineering. Although she had the opportunity to live with someone from her high school, Newton chose to live with someone she didn’t know because she wants to make more friends.

Newton telephoned her roommate a few weeks ago and seemed to get along with her from the start, said Cindy Newton, Amanda’s mom.

Although she is not afraid of being homesick while at Purdue, given that she lived in Japan for the summer, her parents will only be across the Wabash River and she already knows students who will be attending Purdue. Newton said she is worried about some of the classes she will be taking such as physics. However, Cindy said, "Amanda’s a really good student. She’s very well organized, (in high school) she had color coded notebooks and everything."

If Newton does feel overwhelmed at some point, she always has the option of playing the piano in the lobby of Earhart Hall. Cindy said she and her husband always knew when Newton had something on her mind because she would be pounding on the piano.

Newton knows how to do more than pound on the piano; however, she has been teaching piano lessons at her parent’s home for three years.

She teaches six students and will continue to teach piano lessons at her parents home after school starts, which will also give her a reason to visit at least once a week.

Considering she would need to get home every week for piano lessons, Newton was determined to override the no cars rule set up for incoming freshmen, but after questioning the matter with her adviser at Day on Campus, she learned that it was a hopeless effort — especially since the bus could get her home for free with her student ID card.

By the end of her Day on Campus, Newton was tired, nervous and ready to go home to continue the countdown the time until Boiler Gold Rush begins — 47 days. "It all seems real now," Newton said.