In the spring of my freshman year at Arcadia, I got hired to be an orientation leader for the summer and fall of 2017. It's now mid-July before our big fall orientation has even began, and I am extremely happy with my decision to apply for the program. Because I love talking about my program, I wanted to document it both for myself and in the hopes that maybe someone (at Arcadia or otherwise) will see it and decide to join their own college's program. I'm going to be breaking up my experience as I go along. So in part one, I will be going over what my job entails, why I wanted it, and what the beginning stages were like.

What does an orientation leader do?

This is a question I get a lot. Our goal as orientation leaders is to introduce the new students into the school. We aim to make them feel welcome and as prepared to transition into college life as smoothly as possible. For Arcadia, first-years (freshmen) students are required to do one day of orientation in the summer, and then a five-day program for the few days before they move in in the fall. Transfers have the choice of doing a one or five-day orientation in the fall. During these orientations, students get a chance to meet with other new students, get to know campus better and find out a lot of useful information. As a leader, we help give the information and facilitate decisions through ice breakers and things like that.

Why did I decide to be an orientation leader?

I knew as soon as I was going through my own orientation last fall that I wanted to be a leader. I love being able to lead, and I genuinely love my school – so combining it in the form of becoming an orientation leader was a no-brainer for me. I knew it was going to be a lot of work, especially for a volunteer position, but I also knew in my heart that it would be worth it. After spending some time as an ambassador for school (where I give tours and work open houses), there was nothing stopping me from applying.

What was getting hired like?

First, I had to attend an information meeting, then do both individual and group interviews. It was a relatively painless process.

Did you have to do any training?

Yep. There were a few days on weekends throughout the spring semester. Then I did four days of training as soon as finals were over in May, and I move in early to do about four more days of it. The ones during the semester were mainly focused on the team getting to know each other. This was strange to me at first because I knew almost no one there, and it was a relatively large group of people each time. But I quickly learned that everyone was absolutely awesome, and being with them was a place where I could be myself shamelessly.

And that's all I have for this part! Next time I'll go over my experience with summer orientation days.