Record numbers attend Kaiserslautern's College Night

Published Oct. 20, 2008
By Christine June
U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Friends had told Col. Tina Harvey, with the 3rd
Air Force on Ramstein Air Base, about how big of deal College Night was
here. Still, it took her by surprise.

"Unbelievable," said Colonel Harvey, who was there with her two teenage
sons. "What diversity - all the service academies were represented as well
as some high-powered academic institutions like Harvard and Duke
(universities), and the whole gamut like the New York Film Institute was
there as well - there was something for everybody."

A record number of 1,631 students, parents and teachers attended the
Ramstein High School and U.S Army Garrison Kaiserslautern's College Night
held Oct. 16 at the Special Events Center on Rhine Ordnance Barracks.

"There has been a steady stream of people so far - if that continues, we may
see quite an increase from last year," said Greg Hatch, the RHS principal,
less than an hour into the three-hour event. Last year's numbers was about
1,200.

More than 75 Bitburg High School students attended the event.

Close to 200 representative from 110 accredited college and universities, as
well as scholarship and financial agencies from the U.S. and Europe were
there at the event.

Colonel Harvey made an amusing observation of the event, "All the children
were hanging out at the college booths, while all the parents were hanging
out at the scholarship booths."

This is the 12th year that the Kaiserslautern military community as hosted
the event with the two high schools here - Kaiserslautern and Ramstein -
rotating sponsorship. This is the second year that the garrison has
co-sponsored the event alongside the schools.

One of the many benefits of this partnership is this location on ROB, which
is more than double the size of either school's gym - the previous locations
for the college nights here.

Joumana Hassan, the international admissions counselor for the American
University of Paris, has been coming to College Night here for four years,
and she prefers the new location.

"Its better here than where it was before because it's easier to talk to
students. I see many more students than before," she said. "They are also
more interested and informed."

Planning for College Night starts around May of the previous school year and
takes the collected dedication of garrison and KMC school staffs, members
from parent teacher organizations, school liaison officers and community
volunteers.