For a moment, go back in time, and imagine your second semester during your senior year of high school. Excitement is in the air as graduation is quickly approaching, you probably know where you are heading to school in the fall, and, all the while, you are reassuring yourself that where you chose is the perfect place for you to be. For senior Erin Kennedy, at Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Connecticut she experiencing these wealth of emotions as we speak. For Erin, the anticipation of college emits a mix of excitements and fears.
In fall 2012 Erin is going to attend Southern Connecticut Sate University and is planning to major in Secondary Education with English and have a minor in special education. Not to mention, she will hopefully be accepted to their honors program. However, the rigor of the program has her worried. “My biggest fear would be being able to handle the schoolwork,” Erin stated. There is no question about it: college level reading and work is definitely more challenging than that of high school’s. Another fear Erin had was being able to maintain a balance between a social life, classes, and sleep. Time management is, no doubt, another common fear most seniors have before attending college.
Amongst the fear, though, there is excitement. “I’m most excited about meeting new people and making friends that I'll hopefully have for the rest of my life, and having college be the best years of my life,” Erin said. The most exciting part of freshmen year and college, in general, is meeting new people and creating bonds that last forever. Despite her fears, Erin is sure that Southern Connecticut is the best place for her to be because of their superb education school.
The fears and excitements Erin feels are common emotions for any high school senior to feel. I recall feeling the same way about the college workload before I came to Rutgers University. “Can I handle it?” I thought. “How will I manage my time?” I thought to myself too. These are questions that can be answered at a summer orientation. However, they are answers that shouldn’t be merely stated but explained and demonstrated. As an orientation leader, I can talk about the difference I see in my own experience from high school to college level work. For example, the fact that you will only have three exams of different weights to determine your grade rather than multiple quizzes or essays of at least eight pages each that you write five times during a semester on top of readings, made my first semester difficult to adjust. It’s certainly hard to sugarcoat the fact that college work is no joke, but instead of completely overwhelming freshmen we can mention the resources available to them to help them adjust to the workload such as the learning centers on each campus, libraries, and teacher assistants and professors who are willing to aid students and show them their potential. I’d share with freshmen that during your first semester it is important not to overload yourself with extra activities and even extra classes to make the adjustment to the workload a little easier. One of the best ways we can educate freshmen on how to handle workload or manage time is through sharing experiences. As far as time management goes and maintaining balance goes, it’s important for freshmen to know that it takes practice and diligence. Giving students a planner like the one Rutgers Student Life gives out every year is a perfect first step for freshmen to take towards good time management. During orientation we should stress good time management habits like writing all of your assignment due dates or exams in an agenda. Perhaps, creating an activity where freshmen have a list of mock assignments and activities that they have to prioritize to manage time would introduce them to good time management habits as well. Another possible way to introduce new students to good time management habits and even work habits would be to include a skit where orientation leaders act out situations and conflicts where there is conflict between what you want to do and what you should do and when. Sharing personal experiences of our own fears before we attended college and demonstrating them through activities and skits to new students like Erin would be extremely helpful and prepare students for college life.
Excitement is definitely, if not, the most common emotion for a new student to feel before attending college. I know that I couldn’t wait to go to college and attend my own orientation. If anything, orientation made me even more excited for college because I was introduced to all of the opportunities I had available to get involved on campus. Erin said she was excited to meet new people and the best way to do that is by getting involved. We can harness the excitement that new students feel by showing them all of clubs and groups on campus to join. A mini involvement fair mimicking the large one held in the fall would be a great way to do that. Students can browse a few popular organizations and see what they’re all about. I know at my orientation last summer there was something like that but there weren’t that many organizations represented. Perhaps choosing a few from each type of club at Rutgers would ensure to appeal all different types of new students. I’ve joined numerous of clubs and organizations on campus and have most definitely made friends with people that will last a lifetime. There is no doubt that after Erin gets more comfortable with her academic load she will get involved at Southern Connecticut.
With an array of emotions incoming students like Erin feel before coming to college, fear and excitement are the two most common, and it’s up to a process like orientation to alleviate the fear and harness that excitement. As an orientation leader, I am excited, myself, to be able to ease new students of their fears and get them really pumped about getting involved on campus and making new friends. After all, that's what we're here for!
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