Last week, over 40 new Alcuin families spread out across the soccer field for the Spring Welcome Picnic — the culminating event of admissions season and a moment the Admissions Team works toward all year.

To Annie Villalobos, Karla Gross and Shelly Biggerstaff, everything about the event is a deliberate choice. What was once a sit-down dinner for parents new to Alcuin was reimagined last year into a festive picnic that included students rising into the next program, complete with yard games, shared space, and room to make memories. While new students met the division directors they'll work with next year, rising students found familiar faces, and families who had just enrolled weeks ago left feeling like they already belonged to the Alcuin Family.

 

In the weeks leading up to the picnic, the Admissions Team designed and sent digital and print invitations, sourced catering, ordered t-shirts, and assembled individual welcome bags for every new and rising student. That level of intention is not unexpected when you realize that the Alcuin Admissions Committees do not just fill seats. Each student who enrolls at Alcuin goes through a thoughtful admission process, and the Spring Welcome Picnic is where that care becomes visible in every detail.

Multiple departments came together to bring the vision to life, but the vision itself belongs to a team that understands something important: the tone of a child's experience at a new school is often set before they ever walk through the door on the first day.