Even though some pride parades have been cancelled this year, one Northern Michigan school is holding their own.
Northwestern Michigan College invited new students and their families to campus from 1 p.m to 9 p.m for “Welcome Wednesday: Pride Under the Pines.”
They wanted to celebrate diversity, inclusion, and equality.
“I love that I feel open, I feel welcome as a non-traditional student so I would love for everybody to feel welcome when they come to NMC,” says student, Amber Marsh.
Students at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City gathered on Wednesday to cover their campus in color.
Marsh says, “We love that they’re embracing our LGTBQ+ people in our community.”
It’s part of their “Pride Under the Pines,” a way to make every student feel included.
“I felt like I was maybe not within a peer group and immediately I felt embraced by the students here at NMC,” says Marsh. “But then when I became a part of student group I started to feel like this became more than just a place where I was getting a degree and felt more like a community.”
“Welcome Wednesday” also included a campus tour and a movie showing at the Dennos Museum.
NMC says it gives student an opportunity to connect with different groups of people.
“We’re going to be featuring different things on campus to make sure that students know the resources that are available to them,” says Student Success Coordinator, Sally Smarsty. “Today we’re featuring our Pride groups. We do have a student pride group. We also want students to know that everyone is welcome here on our campus.”
In doing so, NMC is proud to display their newly painted picnic tables.
“It means a lot to us know that they’re able to see that and we’ll be able to take those tables put them out in the Pines so that they can see it year round… that at least they’re supported,” said Smarsty.
This isn’t the only Wednesday they are celebrating new students, they’ll be inviting them back to campus every Wednesday leading up to the new school year.
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