New Patriot Orientation- session 1

The first New Patriot Orientation session of the summer was held June 14-15. It was my first time being an Orientation Leader and I have to say, it’s a really great college experience to have and I’m so thrilled to be part of such an exciting team of people and contribute to an important campus-wide event.

If I accounted every single detail on every single event, this blog would go on and on and on… so instead, I’ll just mention the highlights and tidbits that stuck to me.

Day 1

The Orientation Leaders and Orientation Planning Committee had to meet by 8am Thursday morning to get ready and help with last minute preparations. Even though most of us were still groggy and half-asleep (as most college students are at 8am), there was an underlying excitement and anticipation in the air. 

Check-in went smoothly (even though there were a few parents who were obviously reluctant to part with their children for the 2 days. I thought it was sweet; parents will be parents and they will always be protective of us!), and so did opening session. And guess what? We, orientation leaders, did a chant with matching actions/dance movements. Yes. Yes, we did. It was our rendition of The Wobble with modified lyrics. We rehearsed it countless of times and I think it went pretty good! Obviously, we weren’t trying to be professionals or anything… we were merely having fun and trying to pump up the new patriots!  I guess it worked because after the opening session, the new freshmen were grouped with their leaders for lunch and an hour of ice breakers/getting to know each other, and I got a few comments from my group of freshmen saying they enjoyed it! There were also some that chuckled and said it could use some work, but hey, at least it made them laugh.

My orientation partner, Owen and I were very lucky with our group of freshmen; they were an extremely fun, enthusiastic and friendly bunch. It was their first time meeting each other too, but 10 minutes into the ice breakers and all of us were already laughing and joking with each other.

The rest of the day went well. Since summer began, I’ve never seen the campus look so busy! A lot of people and departments around the university came and gave a presentation and spoke to the new patriots (and parents) which would help them settle in easily and made sure they had most of the information they would need by the time fall semester began.

Day 1 also included the resource fair, where a lot of organizations and departments were present with their material and where students could walk up to the ones that interested them and ask questions.

Because it’s June and because we are in Texas, we had the campus tour late during the day when the sun’s heat was not as strong on everyone while they walked around UT Tyler. A few orientation leaders were stationed at particular buildings around campus and had to talk about those buildings to the groups. As an electrical engineering major, I was stationed at RBS and had to talk about RBN/RBS to the groups that passed by.

 At night, we had the pool party at the HPC, which was a blast! How could it not be? Music, new friends, swimming! And even better… we got the NBA Heat VS OKC game projected on a screen by the pool and that was very popular!

That ended at around 11pm and if you remember, everyone’s been up since the wee hours of the morning and so it was bed time for most. For others, there were pizza boxes waiting for them in the media room of O Hall if they wanted to hang around before going to bed.

After a couple slices of pizza, getting to know more of the new patriots and making sure all my freshmen were safe and sound, it was sleep time for me… or actually… it was off to nap time for me because…

Day 2

We had to be up by 6am! Everyone had to be checked out of O Hall by 8am and orientation leaders had to make sure of that. Once we rounded up our sleepy, groggy but still excited freshmen, we had a delicious breakfast in the Patriot Zone.

The mock class was held during day 2 and it gave students and parents an idea of how a lecture is like at UT Tyler. And even later on, we had the “Meet Your College” where students went off with orientation leaders according to their majors to… well, meet their college.

Day 2 also had a few more presentations (just so they're really, really ready for first day of class) as well as the Swoop Chat where orientation leaders and new patriots could talk to each other without the presence of adults. That way, if the freshmen had any questions that they were afraid to ask in front of their parents or school staff, they could do so at that time.

Day 2 was much shorter that Day 1; closing session was held by 3pm. Everyone was all ready to head home after that but also very excited to come back for the start of classes.

As an orientation leader, I had to make sure that I was where I was expected to be, and on time, to always have a friendly, welcoming attitude and to accommodate and assist freshmen and their parents in any way I can. I don't look it as a job though, it's more of like something you decide to do, and want to do, because of the experience. I mean to be honest, even though it involved me walking around for 2 days with only a 4 hours nap in between, over all it was a lot of fun; I got to meet a lot of new friends and spend a lot of time with my current ones.

Best part of it all? After the closing session, when all the freshmen and their parents left, my group of freshmen sent me such heart-warming and awww-worthy text messages.

I quote one of them: "Thanks for being the best orientation leader we could ask for! It was so much fun being your little ducks for 2 days and I can't wait for classes to begin and get to know you more- you seem like a really good friend"

How sweet is that?

I can't wait for sessions 2, 3 and 4!

(Watch out for the photoblog on this orientation session I'll be posting in a couple of days!)