With spring semester in full swing, students at Winona State University have begun to think about upcoming semesters and their path to graduating. For some students, summer courses have always been a great help, while others may have never heard of it. The Winona State Adult and Continuing Education department has helped facilitate pop-up events advertising the 2026 summer course selection, which has happened every Monday and Thursday throughout the month of February and will continue sporadically until the end of the semester.
Abby Raichert, a student pursuing her master’s in clinical mental health counseling, runs the pop-up events and is there to answer questions and talk with students. “I’d say we’ve had a good amount of people stopping and asking questions. A lot of people ask about what kind of classes we’re offering, so we’re just kind of bringing awareness to that. I think people are enjoying it,” Raichert says. They have tabled a lot in the lower part of Kryzsko, which is a central location for many students, making it easy to stop by and ask any questions or learn more.
Tammy Reed, the Outreach and Communication Coordinator for the Adult and Continuing Education department, says that this amount of tabling is different from what has been done in the past. “We’ve done a lot of tabling in the past, but we wanted to kind of draw some attention to summer session before students get too busy, kind of after midterm… we wanted to just take the month of February to shine a spotlight, get students registered for courses while there’s still openings for them, and give them that extra additional information,” Reed says.
While some students may believe that summer courses are only for those who have “fallen behind” in their major, it is actually a good idea for all students to consider how taking summer classes could benefit them. Raichart says that some students have misconceptions about summer courses: “I think there are still a lot of students that don’t know why to take summer courses. So, I think that’s why we’re doing this—to show students the different reasons you could take summer classes.”
According to Reed, “Our motto is catch up, keep up or get ahead. Some students need to catch up if they kind of change their major, or they are not taking 15 credits a semester… But we’ve talked to students who have graduated up to three semesters early by using summer and winter sessions.” Around 40% of students at Winona State take summer courses. Summer courses are not just for a certain kind of student, but for anyone and everyone.
Summer session pop-ups will be hosted throughout the rest of the semester. Stop by with any questions about summer course options, summer course financial aid, and whether this could be the right path for you.
