Welcome Weekend as an Orientation Leader

Moving back to Ada on Monday, August 17th was a bittersweet feeling because being back meant that the time had come for me to start classes and move 4 hours away from home. Coming back also meant that I was one step closer to getting my degree. Last spring I decided that I wanted to apply to be an orientation leader during welcome weekend. After going through the interview process, I had been selected. We had two fall training sessions, August 18th and 19th, and these two days were designed to train us for every encounter that we would have throughout the course of the weekend, whether that be answering questions, guiding new students and their families around campus or making sure that everyone was getting where they were suppose to be.

Each orientation leader was assigned both a color and an animal. I was part of team black and my animal was a fox. Throughout the weekend I made many new friends and I wouldn't change that experience for anything. Sure the days were long and we were all always exhausted by the end of the day, but all that effort was worth it in the end. 

Throughout welcome weekend I was able to attend and participate in a variety of events. On Thursday, August 20th the new students began moving in. I spent a majority of that day either directing traffic or directing families and new students to their assigned classrooms. Once all the families had left, it was time to start getting to know my new students that had been assigned to my group. We began that night with a little meet and greet and then headed out to the football field, where our next activity was Play Fair. Play Fair allows you to get to know a variety of people and also takes you out of your comfort zone, as you have to dance with complete strangers and even sit on a random persons lap. By the end of that night, everyone was exhausted and as orientation leaders, we all knew that we had another long day ahead of us, On Friday we started off the day showing the new students around campus by doing a photo challenge. Throughout the day the students attended a variety of sessions and learned more about the university. On Saturday, a large majority of new student participated in Ada Civic Engagement Day, which is a day that allows us as students to give back to the individuals of Ada. The remainder of Saturday was spent allowing students to continue getting settled in and comfortable with their new home.

Being an orientation leader allowed me to share both my experiences and knowledge with these new students, but it also allowed me to get to know a variety of new individuals on campus.I hope that during welcome weekend I was able to share with these new students why Ohio Northern University is such a great university to attend. I also hope that I was able to help them have a smooth transition to the place that they will now call home.