ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù

Over the Caturday weekend, families from all over the nation stepped foot on Wildcat territory.  

ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù’s annual Fall Family Weekend between October 21-23 brought forth a flood of Wildcat families, crowding McMinnville restaurants and . For my two roommates, Olivia Welsh ’25 and Matigan Dodge ’25, both of their parents from the Pacific Northwest joined the swarm of ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù families in reuniting with their college students. 

This is my second year here at ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù. I spent this year's Fall Family Weekend with my roommates and fellow ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù Dance Team members’ families. Both my mom and dad, along with my older sister, were not available to travel from Hawai’i to ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù’s McMinnville campus over the weekend. In their absence, I was invited to join in with my roommates and their families’ activities for the weekend. 

I spent Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon with the Welsh family for food outside of ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù’s meal services. 

Joining them over the Fall Family Weekend, I had the chance to get to know ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù alumni, Stephanie Welsh ’95 and Joe Welsh ’96, and how their life at ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù differed from their daughter’s and my own. 

For Fall Family Weekend in 2021, my lovely mother, Roberta Ross, and her partner, Justin Chew, visited ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù to directly experience my first year of college. By folding me into their family activities, I felt the security and warm-loving comfort of family and parenting in the absence of my own. 

Olivia’s parents arrived from downtown Seattle, Washington. She believes that “enrolling in college caused a lot of separation between me and my family and it’s fun to show my parents my world and let them experience my life here at ÃØÃÜÑо¿Ëù.”