Attending Southern Illinois University (SIU) Day is a great way for juniors and seniors to focus on their colleges and career paths.

SIU Day will be Sept. 13, from 8:30-1:00.

During their time at SIU, students will take a morning and afternoon session from the nineteen options, ranging from STEM to liberal arts to recreational courses, among others.

Many students are looking forward to the event.

“The thing that excites me most was the amount of opportunities for different kinds of learning sessions at SIU Day,” senior Jaxon Quisenberry said.

Quisenberry thinks the event could be helpful.

“I think going to SIU Day will help me with my college expectations and how to prepare for it,” Quisenberry said.

Quisenberry has not made a final decision regarding where he will attend college.

“I do plan on going to SIU Day but I’m not fully sure about any plans to attend the college,” Quisenberry said.

Senior Jensen Naas does not intend to enroll at SIU. Instead, she simply wishes to participate in SIU Day.

“I don’t really plan on going to SIU, but I’m going to SIU Day because I believe it might help me with deciding what I’d like to do in the future,” said Naas.

College and Careers Counselor Glenn McKinstry spoke about the importance of attending events such as SIU Day, regardless of whether students intend to go to the school or not.

“Usually on the way home afterward students are excited and realize that there’s a lot more opportunities over there than they thought there were,” McKinstry said. “They get there and they find out that they did learn something.”

McKinstry feels students will learn a lot from their experience of SIU Day.

“I think they’ll find out that the campus is a really beautiful campus and that there are a lot of opportunities over there, and that they don’t have to go far away to a college or university unless they want to,” McKinstry said. “ I mean, now they have nursing programs over there, engineering, business, education, recreation majors all types of majors.”

McKinstry hopes students will realize how much SIUC has to offer.

“There’s like one-hundred-and-twenty undergraduate degree programs over there and over sixty or seventy Masters programs and thirty-five to thirty-six Ph.D. and doctoral programs,” McKinstry said, “so there is a lot going on over there that I don’t think students are even aware of.”