Last summer, twelve Rowan College at Burlington County students signed up to become student models for the college. Over a few weeks, they participated in several photoshoots both in the studio and around the campus and became the face of the college and its brand. You’ll see their faces all over campus, on benches, posters, banners, and flyers, and they even pop up on the promotional video on the college website’s homepage.
Each student is a proud Baron, eager to represent the school they know so well. And they all have a fantastic story to tell.
Ethan Whitman
From as early as orientation, Ethan Whitman knew he would fit right in at Rowan College at Burlington County. Coming from an unstable second half of high school flipped around by the COVID-19 pandemic, his social skills dwindled, yet he quickly felt welcomed and accepted, even among the sea of new people.
“This is the only college I visited, and it captured me so immediately that I didn’t even feel the need to visit other places,” Whitman said.
Whitman made friends fast and strengthened his bond with them further at the Welcome Back BBQ, an annual tradition where RCBC students can acclimate to campus life.
Through his friends, he became involved in RCBC’s International Club. His good friend was once the club’s leader, and thanks to her leadership, he was brought together with a wide range of people at events like the Culture Ball.
“It shows how we’re culminating together as a melting pot. No one’s excluded. We’re all just showing our cultures, our loves, and it’s a beautiful thing.”
Whitman, a winter graduate, was also a peer mentor. Through that experience, he got to show new and prospective students around the campus he had become so accustomed to. A people person through and through, he enjoys helping people out and being someone they can rely on.
“They have all sorts of questions because I’m the first in line to welcome them,” Whitman said. “So when people come to me, they will have anything from, ‘Where are the student services? How are classes? Should I even come here?’ And I have to answer all those questions. Of course, I’ll do it with the utmost positivity because I’ve had a good experience myself.”
As a psychology graduate, Whitman’s goal is to meet and help as many people as possible. The first step is graduating with his bachelor’s degree. Through RCBC and Rowan University’s 3+1 program, he can do that with ease and at an affordable cost, all while staying on RCBC’s campus when he takes his Rowan classes here his junior year. Then, he’ll have a good foundation for what’s to come.
“I’m still young, so I honestly have a lot to go. It can be a bit daunting to think about [the future], but when I think of that future where maybe I’m going to graduate school, I get my master’s, doctorate, maybe I’ll have my own practice and be able to travel and help people… that’s the kind of future that I look forward to that motivates me.”
Sandra Aviles
Rowan College at Burlington County student Sandra Aviles has done this before. Aviles was enrolled back when RCBC had services at its old Pemberton campus. But she was different then; she was younger and more focused on taking electives.
Aviles now focuses more on learning life skills after coming to Mount Laurel in 2023 as an education and business double major. At RCBC, she still has her previous credits and now has access to all the classes she needs to reach her goal: to open a business that works with young adults with high-functioning autism to help them become independent. Her own son has autism spectrum disorder.
“That’s what mattered, that they had what I needed,” Aviles said.
The class that defined her homecoming to RCBC was English 101. The first assignment was a speech, which she brushed off because it didn’t seem relevant to her writing ability. But it was a moment for her to express her thought processes and where she stood with her education.
“I took advantage of that opportunity to basically plant my stake, as it were, into what my life goals are, and to talk about what I’m coming back to school for… What has all this meant, and how does all of that play into what I will be doing next?”
The Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) has been instrumental in guiding her through college again. When she made a long list of what she wanted and needed to do both for herself and to receive her degree, an EOF advisor helped her take a step back and re-evaluate what routes she needed to take, like the 3+1 pathway.
EOF also brought in program graduates to talk about their experiences, such as what they got out of the program and how they’re using it post-graduation.
These resources and more are what Aviles appreciates so much about RCBC. For those with different paths coming to college, RCBC has it all to make the transition smoother for them.
“There are things like the food pantry, there are different types of resources if you can’t figure out how to manage your schedule, there’s the [Zen Den]… the fact that they have the sensory areas for people who need that extra peace… it’s the consideration they have to put into stuff like that.”
