Students at Longwood University and Hampden-Sydney College (H-SC) are settling into their first weeks of class amid new opportunities and services afforded to them via new spaces for learning and growing.

H-SC finished construction of its Brown Student Center and the renovations to Winston Hall, which has been renamed Brinkley Hall, just in time for the new school year.

Brinkley Hall houses the Viar-Christ Fine Arts Center. The center’s art prep room will allow mattes and frames of student projects, and the center has a space acoustically designed specifically for chorus rehearsal.

The Brown Student Center houses the offices of Student Affairs, the Student Court, Student Government, Career Education, the post office, the Tiger Inn — a campus dining option — and spaces for student groups and activities within its walls. It will also be home to the college’s Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Longwood is set to open its new Early Childhood Development facility, called the Andy Taylor Center, in several weeks.

The center will not only allow graduate students a chance to learn and work hands-on in early childhood development, but it also affords families in Farmville an option for early learning.

Creating new venues for students studying everything from music to business in order for them to reach their full potential is very important.

Having additional early childhood services available to the Farmville community is also beneficial. I commend H-SC and Longwood for doing just this.

EMILY HOLLINGSWORTH is a staff reporter for The Farmville Herald. Her email address is Emily.Hollingsworth@FarmvilleHerald.com.