Hello long lost friends. I am in the land of orientation. Where is such a distant place, you ask? Far, far, far away from the land of normal everyday life. Trips to this place include 18-20 hour work days where I coordinate and implement all of the fun planning for new students that we've been working on for the past few months. I have only a smidgen of time right now. So, I leave you with a couple of highlights from the past couple of days (including a lovely photo of my new wildcat youngsters...ignore the light pole shadow...I'm sure that will get photoshopped out at some point).
Weirdest parent question: "How often do you (as in administrators) patrol the halls? Because one time when I went here (I'm assuming based on age in the early 70s) a girl stayed in the room with a guy across the hall from me and that is not acceptable." Awkward! How do you explain to a parent that we don't watch their children like a hawk 1) because they're adults and can make their own life decisions, 2) it's not 1970 and we don't sign people into residence halls anymore, and 3) I don't even work in Residence Life and, if I did, they wouldn't be paying me to walk up and down the halls all day to spy on your children. I'm a little worried about his daughter. She's either very sheltered or a wild child. We'll see.
Today's highlight: This year's class doubled the amount of money raised for the service walk this year from last year. Over $7,000 is on it's way to the Ada Jenkins "Our Town" free clinic here in Davidson. So wonderful! Great job class of 2013!
Currently, I'm getting to update you because I had a 15-minute break before the Life of the Mind where they learn about academic life on campus and how to be more nerdy than they already are. Awesome. So, I leave you with a video from move-in Wednesday night. This class is full of records. We have optional move-in on Wednesday night where students can have their stuff moved in for them by OTs (orientation team), but they can't sleep in their rooms. The rest come Thursday morning and get their stuff moved in. Then, they all formally start the orientation process. This year, 90% of the freshmen moved in on Wednesday night. Typically, it's only 60-65% of students moving in Wed night. Needless to say, it was busy. But, surprisingly ran much smoother than last year. Ironic. Must be that I actually had a clue what to expect this year.
The full details of orientation come next week when things settle just a bit as Welcome Week starts up. Until then, hope you enjoyed this brief update that I am still alive and new student have indeed arrived.
haha "helicopter parents" are the worst.
ReplyDeleteAt GaTech, parents and students are separated during the two day orientation. I always led parent groups because I thought they were much easier. However, without doubt, during every single session of all four years that I did it, I had at least one FATHER come and ask me if their daughter should be put on birth control before starting school. Yep. Parents are crazy.
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