In what has become an annual tradition, more than 100 3rd-grade students from three Windsor CSD elementary schools traveled to Binghamton University to meet their pen pals – members of several sororities at Binghamton.
The students from Weeks, Bell, and Palmer Elementary schools have spent the school year writing to their pen pals about college life.

“I wrote to her about holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. I asked her about what she wants to be and her personality. I asked her about her favorite Christmas gift and when her birthday is. And I asked her what her favorite Taylor Swift song is,” said 3rd-grade student Nora Englehart.

The elementary students visited campus on March 20 to see how their pen pals live and study. Students also toured the school’s library and the fabrication labs in the engineering building.

“It was so exciting. I was looking forward to it the whole week,” said 3rd-grade student Harvey Guiles. “We just talked about ourselves mostly. We had some stations. There were some tours, some arts and crafts, and some games.”

“I was excited and happy. We made pizzas on a paper plate, we colored, we played Simon says. We had a tour of the library and engineering building,” said Englehart. “It was huge and I was curious looking all around. The library building is huge. It was huge and interesting.”

The program began during the 2017-18 school year when students from Bell Elementary wrote to members of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority. Among the topics about which they corresponded were siblings, favorite colors, favorite subjects, and books. The students also got a first-hand look at college life when they toured campus.

Some version of the program continued through the pandemic, with the in-person visit by Windsor 3rd graders to their Binghamton University pen pals resuming in 2022. The pen pal program is coordinated through Binghamton University’s Center for Civic Engagement's Youth Initiative program.

More than 100 sorority members at Binghamton partnered with the Windsor Central School District to correspond with the elementary students. The Binghamton University students are from the following sororities: Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Delta Tau, Zeta Tau Alpha, Phi Mu, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Phi Epsilon, and Phi Sigma Sigma.