Commuter students are perhaps some of the least appreciated students at Piedmont University. They travel from home every single day to learn and then travel back when their day is done. They do not have a residence hall or a roommate they can return to at the end of the day. They go home to their families and repeat the process every single day. This is an easy lifestyle for some students, but not all.
For freshman sports communications major Zane Brookshire, commuting is relatively easy for him. “I think that right now, being a commuter is pretty okay because I just live close to the college,” says Brookshire. “I just head over to college every day just by driving here.”
Some commuter students have their own vehicles that they can drive to and from campus. Others are not so fortunate. They need to be dropped off every day by their parents, and then have to wait for their parents to return to bring them home. It gets tricky when these students make friends or have late-night projects. Sometimes they need to reach out to their fellow students or even professors, just to lend them a ride home.
“Sometimes you have a ride and they cancel on you, and then you’re just like ‘Who can I rely on getting rides?’,” says sophomore film production major Nahomi Solorzano. “Also when you have group projects, people think that everyone has a car. So, then they’re like ‘Well let’s meet here,’ and then I’m, just like ‘Well I’ll have to find a ride to get there, especially since I don’t have a car. I have to rely on people.”
With stricter schedules than many on-campus residents and not having valuable down time in the dorms, it can be hard for commuter students to make friends. However, Brookshire and Solorzano have worked hard to form friendships with their fellow students.
Brookshire says that “there are pros and cons” to being a commuter student. “We can meet new people and make more friends too.”
As for Solorzano, she finds friends she can rely on, especially within her department. “I know here in the Swanson Center, I can rely on people. I can call on people that I know and be like, ‘Hey. I need a ride to go to this class,’ and they can help me.”
Every summer, Piedmont holds a special orientation for commuter students to help prepare them for college life. While no amount of preparation can truly prepare a student for college life, there are difficulties that some commuters wish they knew about at orientation.
“When there’s heavy weather, classes are still going on,” says Solorzano. “So you will not be excused and I’m like, ‘I’m not going to risk my driver and my life to get here’. There are times the rain will just be way too hard or trees will be down, and you just have to contact your professors to tell them you’re not going to be there.”
Commuter students work hard just to get to school every day. They possess a different degree of dedication to this institution that you won’t find in on-campus residents. They are thankful for every opportunity they have to learn and receive college education from Piedmont.
“I couldn’t be more blessed to have [Piedmont] do so much for us to be college students,” says Brookshire. “For what Piedmont has done for everybody because [Piedmont] helps them no matter what. I feel like it’s just been such a blessing.”
