Schoolbriefs

SARASOTA -- A surprise, including sunglasses, confetti, T-shirt and ready-for-coloring drawings of campus, awaits those accepted to New College as a fun way to celebrate admittance.

Colleges nationwide are doing everything possible to encourage students to enroll. New College, where an entering class may be just 250 students, capitalizes on its small size with individualized outreach, according to officials. It starts with the "Admitted Celebratory Package."

"We send out a whole box," Sharon Alcock, assistant director of admissions, said in a statement. "It has confetti in there, a T-shirt, and sunglasses, and a folder that says 'Congratulations, you're in!' on the cover. When we speak to the students, they say, 'That was the most amazing thing I got!'"

Students frequently post pictures of the box or them.The admissions letter is just the first step. Most students are accepted by several colleg

es so colleges want to make sure the students keep them in mind.

New College has some standard messages -- handwritten notes on a student's birthday, for example. This spring, admissions staff thought of the growing trend of coloring books for adults.

They connected with the college Arts Department, and recruited second-year student James vonHollen to draw campus scenes -- historic College Hall, the bell tower and Palm Court.

Suncoast Honors Band auditions set for April 16

BRADENTON -- The Sarasota Concert Band, through donations of the Hecht Foundation, is auditioning for the first Suncoast Honors Band.

A High School Honors Band and a Middle School Honors Band will be formed. Auditions are open to band students from Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Hardee and Desoto counties.

Accomplished instrumentalists on woodwind, brass, and percussion from seventh through 12th grade are encouraged to audition. Students from public, private, charter and home schooled are eligible.

Auditions will be held April 16 at Braden River High School. Top professional musicians from Tampa and St. Petersburg will judge. None of the auditioning students will be known to the judges in advance.

Students who win a chair in an Honors Band will perform a free concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 8, at the Sarasota Opera House. Audition instruments include: flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, French horn, trombone, baritone, tuba and percussion.

Information: 941-807-3846.

-- Herald staff reports

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Schoolbriefs ."