By Linn Rosaker
Four weeks ago Mandi and Sheri Gosling found themselves without a job and with no real direction to go. Today they are both attending BYU through the summer visiting student program.
“I was going to do the poor-starving-actor thing,” said Mandi Gosling, 24, an open major from Toronto, Canada.
“I got on my knees and all of a sudden my heart started to burn, I knew I needed to be at BYU,” she said.
Sheri Gosling, 23, from Toronto, Canada, never thought BYU would ever be an option.
As a new convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, baptized last October, Sheri Gosling heard about the summer visiting program from her cousin, Mandi.
Sheri Gosling said she decided to come to Provo and attend BYU for the summer to learn and grow spiritually.
“I don”t even care about my grade, that”s not the issue,” Sheri said. “I am really just taking time to learn all the things I can about the gospel.”
The summer visiting student program started three years ago as an invitation for high school graduates who wanted to experience BYU, but did not necessarily plan to attend BYU.
Today, various people choose to take the opportunity to come and experience the BYU community for a limited time.
Jeff Tanner, the director of admissions, said that there is no limitation of who can come for the summer visiting program.
Last year about 1,500 students came for the summer visiting program, attending either spring or summer term, Tanner said.
Sheri Gosling said the program is excellent because it gives hope to people and helps them see they can go to college.
The program offers students to take part in experience, which “will be spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character building,” according to BYU”s mission statement.
Sheri Gosling said being able to take any class she wants will help her to figure out what she wants to do in life.
“Coming here really helped me to see that I can do it,” she said.
