Orientation
Posted on Sunday, September 11th, 2005 at 19:35.
When I interviewed to become an Orientation Leader, I never expected the experience I had the past two weeks. My Orientation Leader helped me matriculate to Boston and truly welcomed me to the Emerson experience with honest advice about everything. I knew that I wanted to be that person to an incoming class. My failed venture to the Castle program prohibited me from being that person last year, but wow… it was worth the wait.
I was one of 80 elite Orientation Leaders. An 80 that oriented 900+ new students and hauled 700+ new students’ crap into their residence halls. I wrote letters, e-mails, and IMs to my 12 students to get them excited. I hollered when their cars pulled up to the residence hall, took them to dinner, led them to orientation events, and lied about the CRVE being interesting. ;-)
Two days of unloading cars and loading stuff into carts and unloading carts into dorm rooms taught me an important lesson: freshmen bring too much stuff to college. I made this mistake too and ended up shipping over half my assets back to Virginia after my freshman year. The mistake just become more apparent when every Orientation Leader assigned to a residence hall is stuck moving in a single individual.
Beacon Hill/Back Bay residents showed their ugly side during move-in. During move-in, I was assigned to 100 Beacon St. As I and seven other OLs walked to the residence hall on Labor Day, an old man sweeping leaves off the sidewalk stared us down and said, “We’re going to have a nice quiet Labor Day, right?!” Later, I mistook an older woman for the mother of a freshman as I walked to the Student Union. She said that she thought Emerson had moved entirely over to the other side of the Common. I explained that Emerson’s new residence hall would open next year. She said, “Well if I do say so, that’s good to hear.” Being a WASP, I thought she was just snubbing the “character” of the old brownstones. I continued to explain that I lived in 132-34 Beacon and that enjoyed the experience being in the brownstones. As we finished crossing the street, she pronounced that Emerson’s move across the Common would be, “good for them and good for us. This is a neighborhood, not a college campus.” Um, excuse me?! There are more than a half-million college students in the city of Boston. The whole city is a college campus. Ass.
The Honors Program invited me and a few other Honors OLs to participate in the Honors freshmen dinner and panel. The Honors program is what kept me from transferring away from Emerson. I love the classes and professors. Nearly every major intellectual growth spurt in my liberal arts education has been tied to the Honors program. A combination of Orientation Leader training and the spark of the Honors dinner led me to the most profound personal moment of my college experience yet.
Thought track 1: During OL Training, everyone took a color-based personality test. I turned out to be a strong green. One of the biggest annoyances for green personalities is ignorance. Knowing this about my personality, I wanted to learn how to work better with people that aren’t educated. In the world’s wealthiest nation, there is no reason for anyone to be ignorant and yet so many people are unmotivated to learn. I would rather educate someone than be frustrated with them being ignorant.
Thought track 2: When people ask me what major I am, I tell them New Media. People usually ask me what that means. New Media is internet, interactive, and other digital media production (particularly 3D and compositing). One of the honors professors at my dinner table asked me what type of media I wanted to produce. I sometimes forget that I am a content producer. I haven’t been able to answer the professor’s question for the longest time.
Then the answer hit me and I talked about it as if I had been contemplating the answer for a few years. K-12 is the only education everyone is guaranteed in America and it’s failing. I could take a direct role in solving this problem by going to grad school and becoming a teacher, but I believe that the media is a more influential force than politics, economics, and God in American society. Society has lost its desire for education, but media outlets continue to grow. I could influence a couple of thousand people in my career as a teacher or I could work to create media that reaches millions. Thus, I want to make educational media, particularly for K-12. Never expected all of that from a personality test…
Orientation provided so many wonderful moments with a large group of new friends. Spending 12 hours a day for two weeks in a group of 8o people will do that. Several moments during Orientation made me feel so special.
For the first time in my life, I did performance dance. The OLs each year put on an Orientation Show for the new students. I had never danced before, but I really enjoyed it! Jess Reynoso, an RA, even told me that my dancing was amazing, but she’s biased. ;-)
The Clap Line is another OL tradition where all the OLs form two lines that new students must walk through as they enter an orientation event. As new students pass through, all of the OLs clap, give high-5s, holler, sing Ole!, and pull other peppy moves. My hands were bright red afterwards, but the new students were so surprised and excited walk through the line.
The Boat Cruise is the big final event of Orientation where all the new students and OLs go on a party cruise around Boston Harbor. Usually, this event is *amazing*. This year, WECB’s DJs sucked and their equipment sucked even more. Dancing with my new OL friends was fun regardless. Particularly, Brian, a straight OL, danced with me when I yelled, “Where are the hott boys to dance with?” (hehe)
Finally, I was surprised by how close I became with 80 other OLs. Our last leadership training event was mysteriously labeled “meditation”. All but a few OLs laid down on the floor, eyes closed, with the lights dimmed. The amazing Assoc. Dean of Students Sharon Duffy then instructed the OLs standing to touch someone who represented a particular characteristic. Everyone had a chance to touch someone. This is an interesting exercise, because I was able to sense what others felt were my best characteristics. I couldn’t help but smile when I was touched for being creative, intelligent, optimistic, amazing without knowing it, sexy, innovative, destined for stardom, successful, having a great smile, giving great hugs, and having a valuable opinion.
The whole Orientation experience was touching. Thank you to everyone who made this experience such a blessing!
