By Casey Kerins
Staff Writer
For my fellow freshman and I, it has been just about a month since we first set foot on campus, moved our entire lives into a shared room, and waved goodbye to our parents until mid-October. Although it would be difficult to adjust in a totally new environment, we were so excited. “Finally,” we thought, “We’re adults now, living practically on our own.” The idea of not having overbearing parents to micromanage our lives, finally able to be grown-ups, or at least college kids, was beyond exciting.
Then, we were given a detailed list of places we needed to go, a group of people we would be with during these activities, and an upperclassman who would take attendance and accompany us at all times.
I’m sorry; didn’t we graduate from kindergarten 12 years ago? The last thing I expected was for my first few days of college to be a weird combination of the Honor Code, Sex Ed, and summer camp. Don’t get me wrong, some of the events were enjoyable, and I guess a good way to make friends is forcing a group of reluctant teenagers to hang out all weekend, but was it all really necessary? Furthermore, was it beneficial?
I suppose the onslaught of mandatory events was to fully immerse us into Washington College and to prevent homesick freshmen from locking themselves in their room all day. In that way, the SEB succeeded. On the other hand, however, many students felt completely overwhelmed by everything. We had something to do almost constantly: A mandatory honor code session, a discussion on our summer reading, a session at the Career Center (which my group was unable to attend because the groups at the library were backed up), dinner with your peer mentors, the list goes on and on. There was hardly any down time between events, and consequently, freshmen had limited opportunities to just relax and get settled in.
Perhaps it was the amount of events in the shortened time slot; in the past, freshman orientation has lasted a week. The class of 2017 moved in Thursday morning, and had the campus to themselves for only three days. This made everything jam-packed and stressful.
I will say the Peer Mentor groups do provide a small group of people you’ll see at least a few times a week throughout the semester. I really enjoy my group and my Peer Mentor Hilary Rosenberg. While the groups and the attendance-taking felt like elementary school, it was nice to be with a group of students in which you’ll be sharing at least one of your classes. Additionally, most students agree the Peer Mentors themselves were very nice, helpful, and fun to be around. The idea of being herded around campus all weekend? Not so much.
Looking back, I don’t believe this year’s orientation program was the best way to prepare incoming students for Washington College. While a few events were entertaining, such as comedian Maria Falzone, everything seemed very rushed, and I was left wondering when I’d would have time to just relax and meet those outside my Peer Mentor group. Let’s just hope this time next year, the Class of 2018 won’t be feeling the same way.