![Nelson Hall Resident Director Kendall Engelke Davis looks over to see what Resident Assistant Chloe Smith paints. For her weekly 8 p.m. staff development meeting in Nelson Shack April 16, Engelke Davis held a watercolor event to relieve stress. “It’s a unique opportunity to get to really invest and be in [RAs’] lives,” Engelke Davis said, “which I consider such a privilege.”](https://thebuclarion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/041624_KendallEngelkeDavis_Holland_05-1200x800.jpg)
A look at Welcome Week and more about Bethel’s newest students.
By Sarah Nelson
Bethel celebrated Welcome Week once again for the 2017-18 school year. Since its evolutionary beginnings in 1932, Bethel’s biggest week of the year is full of festivities and traditions. More than 80 Welcome Week staff help freshmen move in throughout campus, give tours and organize a kickoff picnic.
This semester, Bethel welcomes 15 new BUILD students, a slight increase from the program’s past three school years, which capped the admission at 12.
110 of the new students are currently declared business majors, with nursing at a close second with 107 enrolled in the program. 104 are undecided and biology stands at 78 students.
Five countries are represented in the new class: The Cayman Islands, China, the Philippines, Spain and Tanzania.
The gender ratio has remained about the same as seen from the past 10 years, with 60 percent of the class being female and the remaining 40 male.
As for diversity, 18 percent of the new student class are people of color, a statistic that has grown over the past years, according to Chief Institutional Data and Research Officer Dan Nelson.
Welcome Week culminates with the Koinonia worship service, another Bethel tradition meant for the community to come together before the school year starts.
