With the new semester less than a week old, parents of high schoolers were invited Jan. 29 to simulate a typical school day by following their children's schedules and meeting their teachers.

That same evening, parents of eighth graders were invited to an information night.

High school Principal Aileen Yadush said Semester Kickoff Night was really well attended.

This is the second year eighth grade information night and high school open house were scheduled back to back.

Yadush welcomed parents in the high school auditorium, inviting them to tour the building and meet the teachers.

After her opening remarks, she introduced department chairs, giving each one of them time to speak about their curricular areas.

Yadush thanked her teachers for giving a "very brief overview of what your child could expect," adding that "everything is in the program of study."

Colleen Fahey, career pathways advisor at Lehigh Career Technical Institute, manned an information table just outside the auditorium.

"We had a lot of inquiries about engineering and advertising design," she said. "[For this community] engineering is a very high priority."

Eighth grader Sarah Sweitzer and her mom were part of the assembly.

The two were accompanied by 2014 alumnus Justin Sweitzer, who just completed a successful first semester at Kutztown University.

"I was well prepared," he said.

Some of the parents told their children stories of their high school careers at Northwestern.

Jaime Pope introduced her eighth grade daughter Elisa to some of the same teachers she had when she attended Northwestern.

For some parents, this would be the last time they would visit with their children's teachers.

This was the case for the mothers of Nicole Generose, Emily Wilk and Kelsey White, all seniors.

The mothers were obviously happy for their daughters.

Though Nicole's mother admitted to feeling a bit "melancholy," her smile showed her excitement over the new opportunities her daughter would have this fall as a Penn State student.