More time for connection

When I think back to my first week in college, to be honest, I don’t remember much. There was so much information, so many events, so many people. It was all a little overwhelming. But it was also so much fun. 

Welcome Week was truly one of the highlights of my college experience. Everything was new and exciting and a little scary. I was living on my own for the first time, trying to make sense of where I had landed and what I wanted to be. In the midst of this tricky transition, Welcome Week provided me with a foundation to set myself on, along with ways to succeed in college and how to make the most of my time here. 

Welcome Week also gave me some of the best friends I have ever had. We met on my dorm floor, in my core classes, in the sessions and activities, and now, three years later, we all live together. Just for that, I am grateful for orientation. 

Immediately after Welcome Week ended, I knew I wanted to be an orientation leader. I am constantly driven by a desire to make Goshen College the best it can be for everyone who sets foot on this campus, and I saw orientation as a perfect avenue to achieve that. I wanted to make sure every new student had the chance to have the same experience that I did. 

Over the past three years, I have immensely enjoyed working with the first-years every August. I have appreciated the opportunity to get to know the new students before classes start and to be someone they can say hi to throughout the year. It has been fun and fulfilling to help guide them through that first week. But that’s the thing. Since I’ve been here, Welcome Week has always been just that – a week. And now, it’s not.

Last spring, when I heard that GC was moving to a shorter, more scaled-back model of orientation, I was disappointed and a little skeptical. In my opinion, what makes orientation special, memorable, and effective is the time that it gives new students. Time to make friends, time to get adjusted, time to have fun and time to feel a little less scattered before the pressures of class and responsibilities begin to build up. Without that time, I wasn’t sure what Welcome Week was going to become. 

Now that this year’s orientation, cut to three days and newly renamed Leaf Launch, has come and gone, I can assuredly state that it did feel quite different. Fewer days meant fewer evening activities hosted by the Campus Activities Council and Residence Life. These activities, such as a scavenger hunt in downtown Goshen and a day trip to Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, had been an opportunity for students to interact with people outside of their orientation groups. With orientation groups and Core 100 classes now the same, omitting these activities meant there was even less chance for the first-years to meet a wider portion of their peers. 

Additionally, fall athletes with practice and games missed out on a much larger percentage of the programming than in past years –  programming that was already significantly reduced for everyone. Among other things, gone were two days of Core 100 and a student panel.

In many ways, the new, three-day model was very flawed. I believe that if it is going to continue to be used in the future, it definitely requires improvement. However, there were also some good aspects that, in all honesty, I was not expecting. Given that they spent the majority of their time with the same people, orientation groups seemed to get closer than normal, faster than normal. Those relationships also have the potential to deepen throughout the year in Core 100. 

Additionally, I think the shorter week was not as overwhelming as it can sometimes be, given that there was less information being thrown at the students. The information that they did receive, they may also be more likely to retain.

All in all, I don’t think switching to a shorter model for orientation was necessarily a bad decision. However, if it continues to be used, I think that there needs to be more time built in to give the students a chance to get to know each other and the campus in a less structured and more enjoyable manner. Maybe this looks like one more day, or the opportunity to move in early – something that provides the space for less information and a little more fun. 

In the end, the point of orientation is to prepare students to succeed in college, academically, professionally and socially. As a campus that champions student support, we have to make sure that our orientation program has the time and ability to effectively and comprehensively achieve all of those goals, no matter the form or the name.