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Luverne is welcoming 70 college students to town for the fall semester.
The students attending Minnesota West Community and Technical College — Luverne Center began classes Aug. 26.
Jill Arp, the resource specialist at the Luverne Center, organized a “Getting Connected” week that included a vendor fair, community scavenger hunt and more.
“Our goal is to help connect them to the community of Luverne,” Arp said. “We want them to feel welcome and get to know people and businesses of Luverne.”
Arp said 19 local businesses were represented at the fair in the center’s lobby.
Local banks, restaurants and other service providers met with students and offered them deals and products.
“It was great to have such good support from the businesses,” Arp said. “The businesses really spoil them.”
For the second year in a row, the Minnesota West students also participated in a photo scavenger hunt around Luverne.
Arp provided a list of 22 different businesses, people and landmarks in Luverne. Participants had their picture taken at or with at least 12 from the list and posted the pictures to Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #LuvMNWest2019.
Scavenger hunt requests included the Palace Theater, the Bison statue at Those Blasted Things, shaking hands with the mayor, drinking coffee at Wildflowers and enjoying the Luverne City Park among others.
“It gets them to learn about the whole town of Luverne,” Arp said.
“The students get to the Loop, the Lake, the dog park and other places they might not know about.”
Photos submitted to the contest are voted on by faculty members, and the winners receive a prize.
The Luverne Center offers six programs of study plus a number of general liberal arts courses.
A dental assistant program, and the appropriate facilities, was added this fall to the previous offerings of liberal arts, phlebotomy, medical lab tech, medical assistant, radiological tech and surgical tech.
A Community Open House, partnered with the Chamber of Commerce, will be hosted at the Luverne Center from 4-6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7.
The public is invited to tour the new facilities, meet current students and learn more about the local community college center.
“We’d love to have people come in and learn more about what we do here,” Arp said.