I could hear the cheers a mile down the road ‘- the Fairfield University Orientation 2012 greeting committee, already full of their 5 a.m. coffee, were waving their banners and chanting welcomes to the freshmen. Just upon entering campus, I already felt like I belonged here.
Although orientation helped incoming freshmen to meet new classmates and become familiar with our new campus, it wasn’t the ultimate orientation experience.’ ‘
One of the biggest issues with the 2012 orientation was the group system – everywhere we went, we went with our group.
After the usual embarrassing name-games, the orientation groups became closely knit. This was important, because we were always with our orientation group; we roomed with members of our group, we ate with them, sat next to them in the Quick Center, and went to seminars together.
Although it was nice to form a core group of people and have an automatic group of friends, it would have been even better had we been allowed to socialize with other groups. If we had more free time to mingle outside of our groups, we could have been exposed to even more people and opportunities for new friends.
The most memorable part of orientation for a majority of people was the time spent in the Quick Center listening to what seemed like endless hours of speeches, lectures, informative student panels and advice sessions.
Interrupting only occasionally with loud cheers of ‘GROUP 11 RULES’ and ‘GROUP FIVE PRIDE’, the crowd’s respectful silence was more likely semi-consciousness caused by hours of sitting rather than unwavering interest in the presenters.
This feeling changed when our orientation leaders finally took the stage. Through their entertaining and amusing skits, we were exposed to more advice and resources for our time here at Fairfield.
‘The skits let us hear the opinion of upperclassmen who have already experienced freshman year at Fairfield,’ said Laura Kanarski, a freshman who attended the first orientation session. ‘Their presentations cast a new light on the freshman experience.’
Our attention spans only last for so long ‘- if we had been given more breaks between presenters, or if the information sessions had been more split up between the two days of orientation, we would have paid more attention to the important material being presented.’ Or maybe more information should have been presented by the O-Board team ‘- corny acting seemed to work better at getting people’s attention than repetitive presentations.
The evening orientation activities were but a slight improvement from the day’s schedule. We all enjoyed the ice cream social, but the feeling of being trapped in Barone until midnight was not what we had been expecting, and definitely overpowered our enjoyment of a late-night sugar rush.
While I understand the need for a curfew, the last thing I wanted to do at midnight after a long day was dance with a hundred of my awkward classmates.
Isn’t the point of college to be independent? My biggest excitement about coming to Fairfield was finally gaining freedom ‘- and freedom was definitely not what I felt at orientation. I felt overscheduled and rushed ‘- sure, there is a wealth of information to cover at an orientation, but some can be saved for the welcoming in the fall or simply through self-discovery.
Orientation, despite its issues, was still a great success.
‘I found that orientation was really helpful in starting friendships that will last for my next few years here,’ said Chris Love, ’12. ‘I already knew people when I arrived on move-in day, so it made the process less stressful.’
With new faces to recognize come fall and lots of new information tumbling in our minds, we did feel more prepared for the start of classes.
At orientation 2012, we learned to live for today and dream for tomorrow, and every freshmen I talked to felt that orientation was both helpful, informative and yes – even fun.
Credit for a successful orientation must be given to the helpful orientation leaders, Team ’12, and of course to both Jamie Abromaitis ’09 and Jen Amdur ’09 for coordinating double two-day sessions. The effort put into the 2012 orientation was evident and extremely appreciated.
The effects of orientation are also lasting ‘- we will always remember our first interactions with our Fairfield classmates. This feeling of community doesn’t just apply to freshmen: at campus gatherings I still sometimes hear upperclassmen involved with orientation chanting, ‘Team what?’
‘TEAM 12!’
Good luck, class of 2012 ‘- we have four years to make our mark on this school. Let’s see what we can achieve.
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