Summer of Orientations

I've had a lot of people asking me what exactly Orientation was.. so I thought I'd answer you all at once.

Thirteen times from July 1st and September 19th Portland State held Orientations. Newly enrolled students are invited to attend Orientation and learn more about the University, it's resources, majors, etc. Days are either strictly for Freshman (students who have no credits coming into PSU), or Transfer (students who are transferring from either another University, or a junior college).

The OL team met every morning at 7am for a 30 minute briefing session. We talked about any changes we would need to know, information adjustments, told how many students we would expect that day (usually around 400) and we'd get the daily schedule. From there we broke into our "morning groups": Check In, Directional, and Tours. Directional put balloons around campus and stood at strategically placed spots to guide people to the lecture hall; Tours conducted pre session campus tours; and Check-in prepared all the literature student receive when checking in, and checked in students... that was my group.

Every morning, I'd check-in close to 175 people and their guests, take guest fees, give them their materials, and direct them to either have their photos taken for their ID cards, go on a campus tour or enjoy refreshments until 10am. At 10, students would congregate in the lecture hall for 35 minutes of "welcoming" and information about the day. Then, at 10:35, they would be directed outside where they would meet up with their Orientation Leader (based on their major & number on their nametag). I would take my group to a spot on campus where we would visit for 20 minutes, share majors, do an icebreaker (I know, I know...) and then I'd give them an idea of what their day was going to look like. I encouraged my students to think of any questions that may arise and ask me when we came back together.

After "Meet with the Orientation Leader", I would walk them to "Breakout Sessions". These were mini-classes on things ranging from Financial Aid, Housing, College Success, Urban University, MultiCultural Relations, etc (I was assigned to the "Top Ten Tips to College Success" room.... if you want to know what they are, ask me). After two 30 minute Breakout sessions was lunchtime. Lunch was always catered by our campus catering service (Freshman days was really good "meals"... turkey, spaghetti, etc. Transfer days was sandwiches. The reason for this is because we have more parents at Freshman days!) During lunch, OL's are responsible for mingling with the students, making sure no one is sitting by themselves, and answering questions for students and parents. We also encouraged students to visit all the tables at the "Resource Fair" which was made up of members of services/resources around campus.

Toward the end of lunch, my supervisor would get up and direct the students to follow their OL (by number) and we would take them to "Getting Started". This was when an advisor would tell students all about graduation requirements, the PSU general education requirements, and specifics about degrees. Following "Getting Started" students would then meet as a group with their OL. As OL's we conducted "Peer Advising" where students were encouraged to ask any questions they had, or for any clarification about anything they had heard so far that day. We also got into more specific things that would be helpful for students: transportation, tuition, where to find information, etc. I always tried to help students with any questions they had in regards to registering for classes too. I knew that when they met with their advisor, I could reduce the amount of time they spent struggling with a little one-on-one help before they met with the advisors.

After "Getting Started", students would be split up by majors to meet with department advisors, major advisors, or university advisors. I almost always had students in Pre-Education, Liberal Studies, General Studies, Arts & Letters, and Social Science. All of these students went to the General Advising room where I worked anyway... but occasionally students would be considering other majors, and would need to go to another room.

In Academic Advising, I specifically worked with Karen DeVoll who is an advisor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and worked specifically with those students considering Education as a career path. Since this is also my path, I am very knowledgable in the requirements, so I would help students choose classes that would lead them on that track. I would help students with our Education minor (since we don't have an Education major) and with choosing a major that would most interest them and would lead them to that goal. I also helped them choose classes that are pre-requisites for entry into Portland States Graduate School of Education. I'm very glad that I had the opportunity to teach it so much, because the more I worked through it with a student, the more I learned about my own path.

The last part of the day was the "Registration (Reg) Labs". During Advising, students planned their schedule for Fall term. During Reg Lab, they set up their online account, accepted certain terms, registered for classes, fixed errors on their accounts, and set up their PSU email account. This was a very stressful time, and got more stressful as the summer went on. Students would have "the perfect schedule" planned out, and then get to the reg labs and realize that everything was full, or that one was full which threw off the rest of their schedules. I dealt with more than one student who was in tears before I sat down with them; not just because of the stress of planning a schedule, but also the stress of dealing with their parents "desires" the whole afternoon. I ended up asking the parents to step into the lobby, and told them that their daughter was "in great hands" and we would get things figured out.

I said before that we had to be at our morning meeting at 7... well, I was usually in the "reg labs" till about 5:15 or 5:30. This happened on average twice a week (T and Th and some Saturdays) all summer. We had a few breaks, but it was pretty continual. In addition to doing this, I was also taking 14 credits, moving and working at the office. I'm really glad that I did it though. It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much from it. I loved being able to help students feel comfortable on campus, and answering all the questions that no one answered for me. I learned more about the campus than I ever thought I could possibly know (or want to know). I finally got to the point where I felt like I was a part of Portland State!!! It was a great experience... but I'm glad it's over. It was great while it lasted... but I'm not planning on doing it again next year (granted, ew're all crossing fingers that I'll get into grad school, so it won't even be an option).