You’re scurrying about your room in your house, in your own
town, where it’s like Cheers and everybody knows your name. You’re about to go
somewhere rather different for the first time, so what do you do? You prepare.
How so?
....You OVERPACK! You received an email about “What To Bring” and you check
everything off as you stuff it all into your HUGE “I’m going on a cruise for
two months” suitcase. Then, it’s time to get on the road towards the hundreds of
strangers, with whom you plan on spending the next two days. Nobody knows your
name. You don’t know the campus, and you really don’t know what to expect.
Nonetheless, you’re excited for your summer orientation at
Rutgers University.
As Orientation Leaders, we need to not just do the “same
old, same old” but evaluate the successes and failures of orientation and work
toward improvement. As explained in Exploring Leadership , “the
leadership process entails ‘initiating and guiding and working with a group to
accomplish change’”. To get a grip on a more recent orientation experience, and
focus on improving future sessions, I spoke with a current first year student
about the New Student Orientation summer session of 2011, named Julie.
This is me...
...And this is Julie!
Julie’s preparation
for orientation was a lot like this
She was like a lot of other students at their college
Orientation, and thus, a lot like people YOU will meet in your sessions this
summer: Really NERVOUS! Julie admits “At orientation I was honestly pretty
reserved so I had a tendency to hold back from my given group”. As an OL, one
needs to crack the shell of a timid student right open and make them feel at
home at Rutgers. How can they stay focused enough during orientation if they’re
too distracted thinking about how nervous they are?!
Unfortunately, this sort of happened to my first year
friend, Julie.
“I learned the most when I was on my own”, Julie told me, “not
because I didn't find my OL helpful or anything , but because she was. It’s
just that it was hard to have time to
socialize with my group, so I wanted [alone time]” .
Julie wished that she and
her OL were able to connect more. Maybe then she’d feel more comfortable.
Then……Hallelujah!
Julie not only found an aspect of
orientation that helped her to let loose and open up to others, but it also helped
her learn skills for life.
“What was the most enjoyable was definitely the free time we
had in the Livingston student center. It was a great way to strike up
conversation (with all of the giant board games around). It just made the event
enjoyable”. RED FLAG!
Learn the success and
mistakes from the past and keep a mental note of this.
it’s sometimes the more “unorganized” free
exploring that lessens anxiety and helps students get comfortable. Structure and
strict scheduling made Julie feel, “overwhelmed”.
After Julie’s nerves were calmed by the laid back format of
the Livingston Student Center activities, she was able to meet people, make
friends, and thus get excited about coming to Rutgers in the fall, and form the
relationships she needed to feel at home.
For her this is one of the most
important skill that she gained from orientation. Julie says
“At orientation,
more than anything I learned how to socialize with people (corny or whatnot yes
but it's true). I'm always nervous about being in large group situations, but
[orientation] made me talk to people, which helped me form relationships when I
got to campus”.
Not very surprisingly, Julie said the Ice cream social was a
big hit! It was,
“definitely the most fun. Seriously the ice cream thing was
AWESOME on multiple levels”. She continued to say, “but the most memorable part
of orientation was the improv acting group portraying what could go wrong at a
party. It was very moving and I loved it”.
This is important to note!
Although many may argue that it
is more important to inform incoming students about the history of Rutgers,
important facts and resources, students DO want to hear about what people are
afraid to TALK about :
The difficult issues of drinking and drug use on campus.
Although it is often uncomfortable to talk about, and a majority of people
think it shouldn’t be discussed, doing so does make a difference in the lives
of first years, who may not have been exposed to these kinds of situations
before and are in need of guidance. Clearly it has left its mark on Julie, and
will continue to help other incoming students as well.
Julie got more of out of the “skit portion” than she did out
of the game show. After coming to
campus, she says she realized that,
“It was fun and all but none of the
information was really relevant to what I actually needed to know at school”.
Overall, the most influential part of orientation for my
friend Julie was the mini involvement fair. It was there that Julie found out
about the Core, the Rutgers radio station.
She was instantly interested and it
became a huge part of her life once she stepped for on campus. It was at the
this point in the orientation Julie really felt like she belonged, and could
see herself having a fulfilling time at Rutgers University.
My final question for Julie was one that focused on any
possible mistakes made at orientation that be fixed in the future, and thus,
help us better the process.
Q: Was there anything about orientation that failed you, or
made you feel unprepared once you got to campus?
A: Definitely the tours of each campus!
Rutgers is enormous. We all know that. But as an OL, it’s
important to help the students understand that forming their own small
community within this large university isn’t impossible. We also must help
familiarize them with the twists and turns of the campuses.
This is a difficult
task, but perhaps our current approach can be improved.
Julie elaborated by saying “I just wish I had a chance to
see ALL campuses. I never set foot in Douglass at orientation so when I got
there in the fall to dorm I was a bit overwhelmed”. I felt her pain. Where in
the world IS the “POW building” on Cook/Douglass?!
Together, Julie and I tried to develop a solution
Need for a tour of EACH campus+ lack of time = issue!
She suggested that maybe each tour group get a mini bus tour
of every campus on the way to the campus where they are assigned to have their
walking tour.
OvErAlL
Julie
says Summer Orientation, “ made me very comfortable. It gave me a general feel
of campus and it gave me a few friendly faces to see when I got there. I
enjoyed it very much”.
WE must be those friendly faces. As OLs we must always be
ready to provide encouragement and support for the incoming students. But we
also be innovative friendly faces and work to learn from our experiences, as
well as others, to improve the process and make all Rutgers students feel welcomed
and prepared for
The Orientation Program has been changing and IMPROVING for years! Here's a video explaining the changes that were made for the summer of 2010 for the class of 2014 (My class!)
Its important to continue this exponential excellence by considering the needs of incoming students.
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