Today I am about to finish my summer job. I was an Orientation Leader and I welcomed over 8000 new students into Penn State. I personally led over three-hundred students through small group sessions and learned something important from each and every one of them.

This job was long and required a lot of time from me but in the end, it was all worth it. Every student that I met has made an impact on me. Even if I don’t remember their name (remember, I personally saw over three-hundred students), I remember the face and it is so exciting to see familiar faces around campus.

This weekend, everybody started moving in on campus and I was still wearing the memorable pink polo I had sported all summer. New Student Orientation may be over (even though we had our very last NSO on Thursday) but we are still resources on campus for students. This weekend we handed out t-shirts to familiar faces, helped those in need at the Info Desk and spent time with students at Convocation and Late Night. Welcoming students has been the most rewarding experience I’ve had at Penn State thus far.

I’ve learned a lot about myself over the summer. This job has helped me grow as an individual. I have learned public speaking skills, how to facilitate conversations about some pretty heavy topics, and how to work as a team but also how to better myself as an individual. Of course I learned a lot more than this, but I don’t want to make this sound like my resume.

I was never really afraid to talk in public, but I was the first face a lot of students were seeing as they stepped foot onto Penn State’s campus as official Penn State students. I had to make sure I knew a lot of facts about the university and I had to deal with some groups who thought they were too cool for school.

There were two sessions we facilitated on Day One that dealt with diversity as well as alcohol and sexual assault on campus. These can be hard for some people to talk about, so we needed to figure out how to hold those conversations and learn about the resources on campus. I had to learn how to deliver some heavy information that could be difficult for students to talk about. I taught them how to make responsible decisions and I taught new students that they have a choice in everything they do.

We worked as an Orientation team that consisted of Orientation Leaders, Student Program Specialists, and the Check-in-Crew. Each of us was responsible for different things, but our jobs fit together like puzzle pieces. We were there to help each other and better each other but we were also bettering ourselves at the same time. Working in a team like this has taught me a lot about other people’s strengths and weaknesses and how they all fit together to create a perfect team of devoted individuals who love both our university and our job.

Yes, this was a summer job but it never really felt like a job. I was meeting new students. I was talking to people from all over the country and even people from countries all over the world and learning about their different life experiences. I have grown so much as an individual and I can thank New Student Orientation for that. Thank you to the Class of 2020 for an amazing experience and I hope you all enjoy the next four years at Penn State!