Every year, Gettysburg College’s Office of Admissions meticulously reviews thousands of applications from high school students across the country and around the world. Their goal is to identify students whose distinctive experiences and character will contribute to the vitality of campus life.
This year, we are welcoming 715 new students to campus—first-year and transfer students alike—from 30 states and 12 countries. From volunteerism to entrepreneurism, globalization to academics, they all bring something unique to our increasingly diverse campus community.
These are students who like to volunteer—237 of them have already signed up to participate in Gettysburg Is Volunteering (GIV) Day. Long before they applied to Gettysburg, though, volunteering was already an important part of their lives:
- One student has already completed over 700 hours of community service while in high school.
- Others volunteered with a Dominican orphanage.
- One joined a team that built a single story primary school in Costa Rica.
They are experiential learners. Sixty-five students are participating in one of seven Ascent trips. While this may be some of their first times hiking, backpacking, and camping outside, several of our incoming students are accomplished Eagle Scouts and Girl Scouts.
- One received the Girl Scout Gold Award.
- Another led an initiative to rebuild three large wooden camping benches for the largest rest shelter on the Appalachian Trail after the original benches were destroyed in a fire.
- One of our incoming students calls rebuilding his childhood pre-school playground one of his proudest moments as an Eagle Scout.
Our new students are accomplished athletes. Seventy-one of them arrived on campus early for an athletic team, and many more than that will participate in one of our 24 Division-III sports teams. Before coming to campus, students in the incoming class were already highly accomplished athletes, representing themselves, their schools, and their organizations in regional, national, and international competitions.
- One was a standout soccer player competing in games in England, France, and Spain.
- Another was a rowing coach for injured veterans who were honorably discharged.
Many of our students are self-employed innovators and will doubtless take advantage of the many entrepreneurial programs available on campus. They run businesses offering everything from artistically-crafted cakes to all inclusive pet and home care, sports equipment dryers to server configuration.
They are also global citizens and increasingly multicultural. Forty-three students come from one of 11 countries outside of the United States, and 36 students participated in pre-Orientation activities with the Office of Multicultural Engagement.
- Before coming to Gettysburg, one traveled the world and collected research for museums in the U.K. and Germany.
- Another attended the Model UN global debates conference in Venice, Italy.
- While in high school, one incoming student served as a representative for the National Association of Cambodian Scouts.
And of course, they are scholars, too.
- 20 students have received the College’s prestigious Lincoln Scholarship for their academic distinction.
- One student is a member of Mensa who is working on her third novel.
- Another has interned at Yale Medical School’s OBGYN cancer department.
- One member of the incoming class assisted a Johns Hopkins professor with biological research as part of a Women in Science and Engineering (W.I.S.E.) internship.
One even has a long history of connection to the College—11 family members are also Gettysburg graduates.
Overall, the Class of 2020 is academically engaged, open to opportunity, and community-oriented. Above all else, they bring that special something—the desire and propensity for greatness—that will shape their campus experience and will have a positive impact on our community.
View more of our Orientation coverage or check out highlights from the beginning of the Class of 2020's journey here at Gettysburg with our 2016 Get Acquainted Day video.