Berea Memories: Visiting Berea College as a high school student

In high school, I had a great guidance counselor who suggested that Berea College might be a good college for me.  If you don't know about Berea College, it is a small liberal arts college where kids can go tuition free while participating in a work program.  As a high school student at the time (early 1990s) I could not comprehend the amazing dollar value offered by Berea.  I would apply to and visit two other colleges, which were also great...  but from a financial perspective alone, Berea was the place.

In fact, I have talked to a number of fellow Berea grads about this.  The older we get, and the more we talk to other friends our age, we are absolutely amazed at how lucky we were to go to Berea.

But....  back to my first visit story.  My guidance counselor helped me and a buddy schedule a weekend visit.  We drove down on an odd Friday in January.  I do remember there being snow.  I ended up doing the driving.  This was by far the longest road trip I had taken up 'til this point in my life.  It was about a 4 hour drive.

I remember the drive being nice, but a bit intimidating.  Driving through my future hometown of Lexington seemed hectic to me at the time too.

We made it to Berea safely.  I remember we got to the town of Berea, but, before we got to the campus, we stopped and asked a young fellow with a backpack for directions.  He pointed the way.  We asked him if he needed a ride and he gladly took us up on our offer.  I would learn that Berea students did a lot of walking, and a ride to a destination was often very appreciated.  The guy we picked up went to BC and told us some about it.

We got to our destination, which was at the Alumni Building.  We were given an envelope with a few maps and letters.  We had a voucher to use for food service over our couple of days on campus.  We were directed to Blue Ridge Dorm, where we would be spending the next couple of nights (I would end up living here for my first semester on campus too).

Josh and I went to food service for a meal pretty quickly.  I remember the trays seemed massively huge to me, and I had a little trouble carrying it.  I was scared to death I would drop it, and embarrass myself so bad that I would be too ashamed to show my face there again as an actual student.  I never did this myself, but using the trays for sledding in winter was a popular campus activity- they were that big.  We did find a group of students who invited us to eat with them.  They were very nice.  One of them, a tall lanky guy named Scott would become a pretty good friend over the next couple of years while I was a student.  Anyway, they tried to tell us some of the good and the bad about the place.  There was nothing shocking, just the usual "this place isn't perfect" type of stuff.

We would make our way to Blue Ridge, which was.....  not the most modern dorm.  Heck, even for our young, low standards....  the dorm was rough.  Think about it...  It is a dorm for young men just out on their own for the first time.  The building faced constant abuse.

In the evening, we went out to see what was going on on campus.  There was a dance in the snack bar.  We went and there may have been 10 other kids there.  We left.  They were showing a free movie on campus (a Friday tradition).  We watched the original Planet of the Apes in a huge chapel with a fist full of students (this was actually pretty cool).

Overall, our visit was....  kinda uneventful.  There wasn't a lot going on while we were there.  My friend and I both thought the college might have had a student give us a tour or something.  We were pretty much on our own for a generally unexciting weekend.

My pal and I would talk to our counselor at our high school later.  He was pretty much convinced by this visit that he DID NOT want to go to Berea.  I, on the other hand, knew that I wanted to go.  The college had presented itself in an honest way.  I mean, for the most part, they are giving away free educations....  What more can you really ask for? 

But, the town is small and cozy as is the college.  The area had a certain underdog feel to it.  The college, and the students seemed scrappy to me.  Its hard to explain, but it did feel like a beacon drawing others like myself to it.  I felt very fortunate after I applied and got accepted.

As a bit of a side note...  a friend took their child to the campus for a visit while in the area recently.  They asked for a tour, and they were handed a map.  I think they expected the "prospective student VIP treatment" they had received at a couple of state schools (that need the money).  They didn't get it at Berea, so they said that they ruled Berea out.  I told them that I thought that was a mistake (and I offered to take them there and to give them a tour myself- they declined).

Anyway, they decided that Berea wasn't right for them.  I don't think Berea missed them.

AND, I ended up having a really nice time during my years at Berea.  I still appreciate the calmness of the town and campus.  The college has a massive library that I spent a lot of time in too.  I could go on and on....  but I still happily remember my first trip to Berea to visit.