As I sit here and write this, I am entering the end of the busiest, and most fun two weeks of my entire summer. For two summers now, I have been a member of the Central College Student Orientation Staff. Or, as we SOS leaders like to call it, SAAUUCEE. Throughout the entirety of summer, we spend weeks together training and learning how to lead incoming students through their transition to Central College.
Training itself is fun, but orientation days are the best. Meeting the new students and getting them excited about Central is so fulfilling and uplifting for all of us SOS leaders. And don't get me started on Welcome Week, which is currently wrapping up at Central College. We spend a week together getting ourselves and the campus ready for the incoming students to step into their new lives. Then, when the students FINALLY get here, controlled chaos and fun explodes from every activity we have planned for them for about a week straight. Being a part of the SOS team has been such a blessing and I think that everyone should join their orientation staff at their college. Here's why you should join the best group of people you'll ever meet!
1. The Friends You'll Make.
The friends that you will make in an orientation group are some of the weirdest, most caring people you will ever meet on your college campus. They see you at your best and at your worst, and certainly at your weirdest. You play games together, test out icebreakers for incoming Freshmen, and learn about people you may not have met had it not been for the orientation leader job. You can rely on your fellow leaders when things get tough throughout the school year or if there is a question you can not answer for one of your Freshmen. No matter what, your friends in your orientation job will always be there to support you and, most definitely, to give you the warmest hugs.
2. The Connections You'll Make With Faculty and Staff.
By being an orientation leader, you will be around and talking to some of the higher up people in your college world. This means that the top dogs of your college will get to know your name and your story and may lean on you later on in your college career. Now, I think that is pretty cool. The ability to make connections and relationships with faculty and staff may lead to interviews, letters of recommendations, jobs, and even personal friendships with people who can get you where you want to go in life. I believe that having a job as a student orientation leader leads you to create wonderful relationships with professors, staff, faculty, and administration on a more personal level than the dominant and submissive relationship most other students tend to have with them.
3. The Countless Ice Breaker Games You'll Learn.
Oh, the icebreakers. Whether they are silly name games or games that require the embarrassment of all involved, they will definitely do their job of breaking the ice. Although Freshmen are typically nervous for the first couple of days, icebreakers are great and fun ways to break down their barriers and force them to let loose a little bit. Plus, I think they are super fun and that you literally can never be too old for a good icebreaker.
4. The Amount You'll Grow as a Leader.
Not only does being an orientation leader force you to be in charge of a group of people (in this case, Freshmen), but it also helps you grow as a person and as a leader. The amount of confidence I have gained since I have become an orientation leader is actually astounding. I have always been pretty outgoing, but I never once thought I had what it took to be a leader. However, once I became an orientation leader, I fell in love with leading people and I have grown a million times more confident in my ability to lead people.
5. The Feeling of Helping People.
The feeling of seeing a Freshman blossom throughout the next few years of their college career, and knowing that you have played a part (whether minor or major) in that growth, is the best feeling an orientation leader can feel. Our job/purpose is to make incoming students to our college feel confident and comfortable in their decision to come to campus. This starts by us leading them through orientation, welcome week, and through the first couple weeks of classes. After that, they are free to become who they want to be in college, and it feels so good knowing that you help them get their feet on the ground started towards that journey.
