Traveling in a pack of coordinated T-shirts, orientation leaders are easy to spot. For the class of 2008, these students will be the first faces of Northeastern.
“We are students here and most of us recently went through an identical process,” said Jessica Arthur, a freshman architecture major and orientation leader. “Through this connection, I feel the incoming students learn from some of our experiences, are more comfortable asking questions to a friendly peer, and are better able to trust answers we provide them with.”
Orientation acts as a housecleaning before freshmen move into their residence halls. At orientation, students take placement exams, register for classes and iron out financial aid arrangements. Outside of the clerical aspects of orientation, students get to experience which student groups are on campus and meet peers in the same major as them. Last year’s social activities have changed a little.
“The afterHOURS events have been modified along with the other evening activities,” Arthur said. “The DJ who was located in the Marino Center last year has been moved to afterHOURS, replacing the karaoke.”
Karen Joy, a sophomore ASL/English interpreting major and two-time transfer student, says that karaoke is not an easy event because not everyone is apt to feel comfortable singing in front of a group.
“We will be housing a DJ at afterHOURS, and everyone knows that where there is music, there will be dancing,” Joy said. “There will also be other OLs in attendance to hang out with incoming students and answer any questions or concerns they have about Northeastern.”
On top of the new music line-up students and family can enjoy an outdoor movie, courtesy of the Resident Student Association. Jennifer Sokas, an orientation coordinator, says the movie plans are still being finalized. Sokas said the main goal of orientation is to familiarize the incoming parents, family and freshmen — who were mostly born in 1985 — to the school.
The year the class of 2008 was born, Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union, the “Live Aid” concert raised money for those starving in Africa and Back to the Future and The Breakfast Club were in theaters.
Sunday marked the first of the summer-long orientations.
“We’ve been training together for months and working hard at answering our own questions so we will better be prepared to help the parents, students and family members as they arrive,” Arthur said.
This year’s groups of orientation leaders have all stressed teamwork as being the essential ingredient for successful programs.
“We are a team and we have been training on how to work as a team for over 10 weeks,” said Jared Schwartzer, a sophomore psychology major.
“We have just spent the last week eating, sleeping, working and playing in close proximity from one another. To say the least, we are a family and are prepared to accomplish our goal as a family and a team.”
