UA students are flocking back to campus, and the Division of Student Life is welcoming all of them with three weeks of free campus-wide activities.

“Our goal is to help first-year and transfer students in their transition to academic and student life at the Capstone,” said University Programs director LaToya Scott.

Week of Welcome has been a cornerstone of the UA undergraduate experience, something that sticks with students even after they graduate. Bentley Maddox, a graduate student who graduated from the University with a degree in communication studies in 2016, looked forward to WOW at the start of every year.

“As a freshman, Week of Welcome was beginning to be a very exciting event for students,” Maddox said. “Seeing its growth from then until now has been impressive,”

WOW, a University Programs initiative that expanded to two weeks in 2012, continues to grow. The event, now stretched into three weeks, kicked off Monday, Aug. 13 with an outdoor Zumba class on the Ferguson Center lawn. The festivities have continued, branching out to include a concert at Coleman Coliseum on Monday, Aug. 20 and the freshman script-A class photo on Tuesday, Aug. 21.

Sunday’s event was a concert featuring Brett Young with opening act Sevyn Streeter, and University Program officials are calling it a hit. Over 2,000 students attended the performance, Scott said.

It wasn’t just the event planners who had something good to say about WOW. Alexa Postiglione, a freshman majoring in Fashion Marketing and Catherine Price, a sophomore majoring in International Studies, went to the concert Sunday night. Postiglione said she appreciated the diversity of the music and plans to attend the concert next year.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” Postiglione said. “I liked how one act was rap, R&B and then one was country. The music was for everyone.”

Price expressed disappointment at missing last year’s concert and said she became interested in this year’s after learning about the event on Twitter.

“I will definitely go next year,” Price said. “I had a great time.”

Postiglione and Price are only two of the 8,000 students expected to attend WOW events this month, according to Scott.

WOW will continue through Thursday, Aug. 30, when University Programs holds Get on Board Day, a fair designed to introduce students to on-campus organizations, held at the Ferguson Center Plaza. This conclusion of the three-week event will segue into University Programs’ first event in the Tide After Dark series: Turnin’ Up with UP. The event is free to all UA students.