Posted: Thursday, November 10, 2016 6:00 pm | Updated: 6:59 pm, Thu Nov 10, 2016.

NU Overnight is an invitation offered to potential students, whether they are local, traveling from different states, or coming from abroad, to visit the school and experience it from a current student perspective. It is an annual event during fall semester, put on by the admissions department. NU Overnight is a two-day, immersive experience, from sleeping in the dorms and eating at the Caf, to going to chapel and visiting several classes; the prospective students are completely engaged in NU life.

Andy Hall, director of admissions, saw the need for NU Overnight after he observed many other Christian colleges who organized preview weekends/days. NU Overnight is an event that provides an opportunity for prospective students to visit during the fall, before officially applying and being accepted.

Hayley Hanford, the campus visit coordinator, played a major role in designing this event. She plans all NU visit events such as Northwest Friday, Daily Visits, and NU Overnight.

“It was definitely a good step in that direction introducing an overnight experience for anyone and not just if you were accepted. We encourage [high school] juniors and seniors to come, but we even have a few sophomores to come this time around,” said Hanford.

This year 60 students from many diverse places were part of NU Overnight, November 3-4.

“The majority of the students came from Washington, one from Alaska, one from California, one from Colorado, two from Idaho, three from Oregon, and the furthest came from Ohio,” said Hanford.

These students had a variety of different areas of interest they were looking to pursue at NU.

“Fifteen were interested in nursing, fifteen were undecided, three for biology, two for communication, four for the Creatio studio, six for elementary education, ten for some form of ministry, seven for psychology, and two for secondary education,” said Hanford.

NU ambassadors acted as the prospective students’ leaders and some of the admissions interns helped by hosting the students and taking them on tours of the campus. The RAs helped to organize game nights, complete with free pizza or donuts. Several activities, such as the Annual Talent Show, were hosted to entertain the resident students as well as the visiting students.

A new activity to NU Overnight, “choose your own adventure,” allows visiting students to have some free time and do something they want to do on their own.

The students had the unique opportunity to join a regular class session to get a sense of what is feels to be in class and to hear the content of a course they could potentially take. Solomon Taylor, a student visitor from Kirkland, participated in NU Overnight and he affirmed his enjoyment during the event.

“Northwest University is probably my top pick. My youth pastor came here and he turned out well,” said Taylor.

Taylor described NU Overnight as a unique and fun experience. He stayed in the dorms with a volunteer host, Bradley Kerswill. As part of the residence hall activities, he pointed out the fun games hosted on his hall.

“We played wolf pack and Zombie Tag around 9pm. It was really fun,” said Taylor.

“Our hope with NU Overnight is that you get a good sense of our campus life and culture and what it is like to live in a residence hall and what it is like to be an NU student; so that hopefully they can either envision their future and their story unfolded here, or they know that this isn’t where God Is calling them,” said Hanford.

Contact staff reporter, Charlette Tapsoba, at b.tapsoba16@northwestu.edu.