Hello, everyone and welcome to our Fairleigh Dickinson University Florham campus. My name is Ashley Marino. I'm from New Jersey about 40 minutes south of here. I'm a senior resident student on campus and I'm majoring in elementary education. I'm also getting special education certified. And I will be getting an undergrad degree in psychology. This is because I'm part of the amazing QUEST program here on campus. So I'll get my undergrad degree in four years in psychology, and then I will go one additional year to get my Master's in Elementary Education and Special Education.
Hi, everyone. My name is Katie. I'm from Bridgewater, New Jersey. I'm also going to be a junior in our QUEST program. My subject matter I've paired with that is history. So I'll also be graduating in five years with Master's degree, which is a very unique and great program that FDU has to offer, aside from being a student ambassador and serving on E Board as well, I'm the President of our Education Club, and I also babysit. And I'm now going to be starting to be working at the preschool I've been working at as they begin to re-open.
We're very happy to have you here with us today in this virtual setting. The first thing that we'll talk about is the theater that we have. Just like you would go to a football game, at FDU Florham, you would go to the plays, musicals just as much as you could go to a sporting event. We're extremely proud of all of our students that work in the arts. And they put on phenomenal shows, all through the fall and spring semester here on the Florham campus.
Also, what we have in here are computer labs. So if you juse see computer lab on campus, feel free to go in there and print anything out that you need to. Definitely one of our unique buildings. As Katie said, I wish we could take you inside. But this is our Dreyfuss Building.
Here on the Florham campus, we do offer Division Three athletics and we offer a wide range of different sports for both men's and women's.
We have a beautiful swimming pool. There is a lifeguard on duty. It is open one lane for students, so you can go in there and maybe on a hot day, swim some laps, meet up with some friends, and a lifeguard is one of the high paying jobs on campus, which is really cool.
This is the Zen Building that Ashley was talking about a few minutes ago. We want to come this way a little bit more so that way you guys can see the front of the building. So what's really unique about our Fairleigh Dickinson University campus is that no matter what major you are, you are not confined to one building on campus. So it's really great because you don't get up and go, "Ugh gotta go to that same building again." You're gonna be in different places on campus, which actually is a really unique experience. So in our Zen Building, you can have classes in here, it's a really great space, it's definitely big. Our class sizes here at FDU are about 12:1, so you never feel overwhelmed, and you never feel like you're just a number. All of the professors know your name, your classmates know your name, and your professors definitely want to see you succeed and do well.
A little bit of a walk down our hill, we're going to show you our science building. Okay, so as you can see, we are approaching our science building. So any science class with a lab are going to be held right here on our science building. As you can see behind me, we're heading to the focal point of FDU Florham, my favorite building, everyone's favorite building the Mansion.
So as we're coming up to the building, I'm just going to get into our bottom level floor. I like to say that the Mansion, as Katie was saying, is kind of the focal point of our campus. It's actually where a lot of our important offices are housed. If you're a first year student, and you're confused on where to go, I typically say try the Mansion. That's because on our bottom floor, we do have our Enrollment Services, we have Financial Aid, you have Study Abroad, we have our Mailroom, which is personally one of my favorite spots to go, because I love to either send myself something or I love to get my email that my packages are here, and I get to go and see what it is. So I definitely spend a lot of my time here. And also, as Katie was mentioning, you do have another eatery in the mentioned which is called Snacks. A super cool fun fact about Snacks is that one of our other ambassadors, Ashley, has a sandwich down there named after her. She has now graduated but her legacy will live on in Snacks in the bottom floor of our Mansion, which is definitely super cool.
This way a bit more.
We want to kind of come this way, so we can kind of see. This squared off end on the building right there. Lenfell Hall is actually our ballroom. I don't know if many colleges or universities that can say they have a ballroom. It's my favorite thing to point out. I'm gonna show you one of the most beautiful spots on campus.
And as we were saying before, classes can really be held anywhere. This is one of those places where a class can be held, which is definitely super cool. I love having a class in the Mansion because it's really great views all around. So over this way is our library lawn that we were just passing, we want to kind of show you a view of that There's a lot of times where you'll see people throwing frisbee around, throwing a ball around. A lot of our events that are on campus, happen on the library lawn, because it's kind of just a center point. So it's really great park that we do have on campus. Sometimes students are studying on the lawn and things like that, maybe having a picnic, so it's super great that we do have that much of an open space.
So right now as we go down the stairs, we really entering more at our residential side of campus. The last couple of stops on our tour were really more focused on academics. So now we're moving into a bit more world becoming the majority of your free time, if you're a resident student on campus.
First year residence halls are kind of set up basically, two beds, two desks, two dressers, two closets. The only really big difference that I like to point out is that for your first year, there will be a communal restroom. But going along with the whole safety aspect, you will have your ID card as I was talking about when you show public safety, that ID card will get you into your own building, nobody else's, your own room, nobody else's, and your own restroom, nobody else's. So that's just kind of something that I really like to highlight here, because you know that when you're sitting in your lockedroom, no random person can be getting in there, which is super great. You're in the restroom, no random person can be getting in there. So that's just kind of the big thing is that you will be sharing, but how it's set up is that it goes by wings so there will be a female wing and there will be a male wing. That's just because like I said there are communal restrooms. There is laundry on every floor and laundry is free.
So our last option for living on campus is called Park Avenue. Park Ace is only offered to our juniors and seniors, so it is considered our upperclassmen housing. Park Ace is beautiful. I like to think of it as the best of both between Rutherford and the Village, because you're still living in a suite style setup. The only difference is, instead of there being six people in the Village, you only have four. So it's you and your roommate, a large common area, a small kitchenette, and then next to you is your other suitemates there as well. And both sets of roommates do have their own bathroom as well, which is a really nice aspect of Park Avenue suite as well.
The Student Center is a very highly traveled building in our campus, you're going to be walking through to get to class, or to go through many of our special events that we have that are held in this building.
Definitely. SoThe Student Center does house our dining hall. So that's why we kind of have, this is more of our residential side, because you don't have to walk all the way to the other side of campus to get to the dining hall. It is actually, when you first walk through these doors, right upstairs to the left, and it will be right on the top. I also like to touch a little bit upon more of our events that we do.because we are here in front of the Student Center. Like I was saying use the library lawn, but our first 40 days are called our devil days that we're on campus. We like to do this because we like our first year students to definitely break out of their shell a little bit, find those friends that are gonna have for life, and just kind of have some fun. So we do that just to transition and make it a little bit easier for you to come onto campus. I know college is gonna be definitely a stressful time. But that's why we like to do that to kind of make it a little bit easier.
Right across from the coffee shop in this building is the Career Services Office, which is a super, super important office. From starting as a first year student growing up even to as you're an alumni of Fairleigh Dickinson University, this office is specifically for you to help you with anything, cover letter writing, resumes, mock interviews, internships, anything that you could need professionally, they're able to help you find that. Something unique, I think as well, is even after you graduate, if you're having a hard time getting into the workforce, come on back, make an appointment with them, and they'll help you find the job, giveyou some opportunities to be able to advance your career.
Alright, so this is the backside of our Student Center, which we were just talking about before. So now we're going to kind of take you on this little path over to the Monniger Center, which does have some of our study areas and our library as well. Something that I'm going to point out right here, this big blue station is a charging station. In case you're over here sitting at the picnic tables and your laptop starts to die or your phone starts to die and you need some charge, you can come right here and charge it up.
Also through this path behind me is our public safety house. We call it The Barn because it used to be the barn for the Vanderbilt's on lease. So that's what we refer to it as but that is our public safety is.
Right through these glass windows is a lot of open study space. I always tell families on tour, this is not a place that I work well. I'm a talker, so in the open area, it doesn't work well for me. However, people that need to work on group projects, it's a great resource and area to be able to sit and study, and get your projects done.
It also have to quiet study rooms in there that if nobody is in there, when you walk in, you're free to go in. There are whiteboards, there are TVs that you can hook your laptop up to. So if you are working with a little bit of a bigger group, and you kind of want to go in there and study, we do have those and they are a little bit more soundproof. So you can kind of get a little bit louder, and the people outside can get a little bit louder, and you kind of won't be bothered by it, which is pretty cool.
So right behind us through those doors is where the library actually is, so you go through those doors, you go straight in the library. I like to say that our library looks smaller than it is. But if you're just looking from the outside, you're like, "Where's the rest of the library?" Once you walk in, it is a lot of floors. It's about four floors. I definitely find a new spot in there every single day that I can kind of go in and be by myself. So it definitely is a lot bigger. Our top floors hold our periodicals. So in there, it's more of our definite quiet studies zones. Nobody will be in there talking, being loud, talking with their friends. So that's a really good place to go if you just need some peace and quiet.
Yeah, for sure.
This is where we were before, which is our Mansion or the rock before the mansion which is super cool. We use our Reuter's Rock as basically a giant billboard here on campus. It's super cool, because about every two weeks you can find something different, some different events. Our admissions team paints it for open house, or Admitted Students Day, which is super cool because if you're walking through campus, and you're not really sure what's going on, you look at the big rock, and you can kind of see what's gonna be happening.
So as you're approaching the rock, as you can see it is currently painted from the last thing that he had on campus. The softball team, their coach is retiring. He did have a mustache, as you can see on the rock. So different things like this, whether it's an event or even a thank you to someone. Yeah, it's always posted up on a rock for everyone to see on campus.
Something that's really great that we do is that if you do choose to come to FDU, then at orientation, you will kind of put your hand put on the rock is like a big signal is welcome to campus. We're so glad to have you here. So that will stay on the rock so everybody can can see those new handprints, which is something really great. Like Katie said, this was our final stop. We thank you for coming on this tour with us. We wish we could bring you inside the buildings, but definitely seeing the outside is really great. And it's all because it is such a beautiful, beautiful campus. system.
Just some final few remarks, please, everybody stay safe. And we hope to see you all super soon. Keep an eye out for some on campus events that we can hopefully be holding soon. As well as keep an eye out for our UniBuddy platform. This is a way that you're able to talk with students. Ashley and I are on UniBuddy, so you can find us there as well as some of our admission stuff are on UniBuddy as well. So definitely take a look at that, and talk to some students about their experiences at FDU.
You can find that out if you go to fdu.edu/chat, it'll pop right up. You can pick who you would like to speak to and they'll tell you a little bit more about the campus and answer any questions that you had. We loved having you with us virtually. We can't wait to see some people on this campus hopefully soon. And we just thank you guys so much. Thank you!
