In high school, I was always that weird girl who couldn’t wait for summer to end. As much as I loved camp and days at the beach, some part of me always longed for textbooks and missed sharing my lunches with friends while we traded stories about the more ridiculous teachers.
Since coming to Whitman, my longing for fall has only gotten stronger. No matter how many adventures I manage to pack into three months, the incredible community on campus and the sheer joy of running around Ankeny after dark always call me back, to the place that has felt most like my home since I packed my bags for college three years ago.
If the nostalgic posts on Whitman Encounters are any indication, many of you share my excitement to start another year in Walla Walla. And for some of you, this fall marks the first away from the homes you grew up in.
We, the staff of The Pioneer, put together this issue of The Circuit in the hope that it will introduce the incoming class to a slice of the Whitman experience, and help re-acquaint those of you who feel that you’ve already been gone for too long. Molly Emmett has a helpful list of do’s and don’ts for the class of 2016 (page 36) and Pam London explains how to be a top-notch Missionary fan (page 14). For those wondering about other Encounters, Karah Kemmerly examines Whitman’s required seminar to see how it stacks up to other colleges’ first-year offerings (page 24).
Of course, we couldn’t do a back-to-school issue without talking about summer. Writer Allison Bolgiano and photographer Faith Bernstein explore the shifting landscape of Wallowa County, Ore. (page 20) through the Whitman in the Wallowas program, and four Whitties share personal experiences from their time off in our summer reflections section (page 16).
In these pages, I hope you’ll find something that inspires you to start the year off well, whether it’s the spark for your next off-campus adventure or a new restaurant you’d like to check out. Watching the hard work of the writers, photographers, designers and illustrators who put this magazine together over the summer has already inspired me to hit the ground running. Welcome back, Whitman. It’s going to be a good year.
Rachel Alexander
Editor-in-Chief
