This weekend, the ExplorACES program will give potential students a look at what the College of ACES has to offer.
Highlights will include a chocolate fountain, profiles of edible soil and at least a couple of exhibits that are particularly hands-on.
“We will have a milk-a-cow booth, where anyone can experience milking a cow by hand.” said Sara Haag, president of the Dairy Club and junior in ACES. “Also returning this year will be the fistulated cow. Visitors will have the opportunity to put their hand into the rumen, the compartment of a cow’s stomach.”
The booth will be run by graduate students studying cow nutrition, Haag said.
The rest of the exhibits will showcase the different departments within the college and the student groups connected to the college.
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Carly Rakes, spokeswoman for the event and senior in ACES, said the event can serve a practical purpose for prospective students as well.
There will be presentations on the admissions process, designed to answer any questions that the students may have about applying, as well as sample college classes for students to attend.
“Basically if any student has a remote interest in the college, it is the perfect weekend to meet professors and students in the college,” Rakes said. “There is definitely something here for everyone. The College of ACES is not just for people from a farm.”
Organizers said the event will not just be for people from one part of the state, either.
Cassie Becker, junior in ACES and event spokeswoman, said the event staff is expecting around 2,000 students from all corners of Illinois to attend.
While some students are taking the trip with their families, others are arriving at the event in large groups.
About 50 students from the Chicago area are coming from Dwight Eisenhower High School, Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences and John Marshall High School, Becker said.
Schools from southern Illinois will also be represented.
“The Alton High School is bringing about 60 students,” Becker said.
There will also be students from central Illinois, as around 45 students from the Woodland chapter of the National FFA Organization and about 10 students from a central Illinois 4-H group are expected to be in attendance.
The exhibits will be set up in different locations, including the ACES Library, Agricultural Engineering Sciences Building, Animal Sciences Laboratory and Stock Pavilion, Bevier Hall, the greenhouses of the Plant Science Laboratory and Turner Hall.