For most students, Orientation is a three day experience. For some staff, it’s a six-month endeavor. But a select few choose to make it last a lifetime.
“Even though summer is over, Orientation is over, it’s still not over,” said Francesco Blandino, a sophomore applied psychology major who made the decision to become an Orientation Leader (OL). “We’re going to be the people they’re coming to three years from now. They’ll say “that’s my OL’ and we still are.”
Orientation takes place over the summer but the program begins planning six months ahead of time with pre-planning and the hiring of OLs. Each OL has a reason for applying for the position that’s rooted in connecting people to the Pace Family.
Blandino attended his freshmen Orientation wide-eyed and seeking adventure.
“I wasn’t sure what I was going into but I was enthusiastic about it,” said Blandino. “I can’t say I was excited because I didn’t know if there was something to be excited for, but I was enthusiastic about the first step into college.”
Blandino found reason to be excited for Pace during Orientation programs such as the boat cruise, lip sync and staying up late at night with other students. He became an OL to connect with students and ease them of the fears he had during his Orientation.
“The main objective was to make them feel comfortable and let them know that it’s going to be all right. It’s a great school and they’re going to enjoy it,” Blandino said.
Laeh Yang-DiPietro, a senior business management major and OL, already knew she loved Pace before attending her own Orientation as an incoming freshmen.
“When I was incoming I thought I was too cool for Orientation.” said Yang- DiPietro. “I was thinking ‘I don’t need to be here, I know Pace.’” She ended up attending her Orientation and gained a deeper appreciation for the school’s community after meeting other students and getting to know them during the program’s downtime.
The experience left an impression on Yang-DiPietro and contributed to her desire to apply for an OL position. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to apply until this past summer, before her final year at Pace.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never had time to,” said Yang-DiPietro. “I feel an OL’s position has an impact on someone’s life and I wanted to be that person to these incoming freshmen.”
While OLs are being hired, the staff at Student Development and Campus Activities is planning the individual programs of Orientation. Each Orientation starts with a template of the previous years’ schedule. Using information provided from student surveys, the staff sees what programs worked, what didn’t work and where improvements can be made.
“Each year gets better,” said Rachel Carpenter, the Director of Orientation. Carpenter is officially in charge of the program but creative input is welcomed from anyone during planning as long as ideas contribute to Learning Outcomes.
Learning Outcomes are various goals for Orientation that connects students to the campus. There are over a dozen different Learning Outcomes for Orientation and each program is intended to contribute to at least one of these goals. Examples include building a strong connection with their OL, becoming more comfortable with faculty and staff or connecting with other students in their group. New ideas are welcomed by the staff, but it’s difficult to put in new programs with the current schedule.
“At this point we’re choosing what goes,” said Carpenter; each day of Orientation is filled with content which makes it impossible to add anything without taking away something else.
While there are not any programs that students are demanding to be removed, OLs can tell when their students are engaged and when they’re not. The numerous presentations on University Services are frequently cited as the program’s low point.
“As soon as they get there, it’s like boom. Presentations,” said Blandino, who noted that some of his students had difficulty staying “checked-in” during presentations. “A lot of people have been traveling, some traveled five hours, and they’re very tired when they get here.”
Both upper staff and OLs acknowledge these critiques but argue the importance of the information conveyed is too vital to be removed. Blandino believes “as much as they don’t want to pay attention, the presentations have very useful information that they’re going to need.” There are some presentations that are more warmly received than others.
Yang-DiPietro specifically commended Residential Life for engaging the audience via question and answer sessions as well as prizes for students in the audience. However, she believes that Residential Life may have been more successful due to students being more directly interested in dorming arrangements as opposed to other services such as Security on Campus or Financial Aid.
“It’s very hard for presenters to take feedback on what they’re doing at Pace since it’s their job, obviously they know it,” said Yang-DiPietro. “But there’s a difference between knowing your job and being able to present it to incoming freshmen in a way that makes them realize they need to utilize this information.”
Despite complaints, survey information from Orientation students says that on average over eighty percent of students believe the presentations allow them to become more familiar with services on campus, which likely implies presentations are here to stay.
While the upper management worries about program plans and arrangements, OLs focus on engaging their students to participate in the well-known Lip Sync event. Although frequently cited as the most valuable experience for incoming students, the event is also the largest source of stress for OLs.
“It wasn’t like pulling teeth, but it was on my mind all the time,” said Donte Kirby, a sophomore communications major and OL. “Everything else goes naturally, but you always worry about Lip Sync. It’s a big leap to have somebody do that.”
Lip Sync requires all students and OLs to participate in a dance routine that’s performed in front of the rest of the OL groups with the best group getting a prize. Everyone has to contribute to lip sync, no exceptions. Despite the mandate, it’s not always easy to convince complete strangers to dance together.
“My first two groups of students were not into it at all,” said Blandino, who experienced several students who didn’t want to participate. Blandino had difficulty with most of his groups but was successful in eventually convincing everyone to partake in the event.
“After Lip Sync, everyone is laughing and says ‘You were right, even though we looked like silly people up there, everyone else did it, everyone else went up there’,” said Blandino.
“They’re more comfortable and their self-esteem is boosted.” According to OLs and staff, the majority of students at orientation have higher morale and satisfaction after the Lip Sync event, some attribute Lip Sync as the reason students get excited to attend Pace.
After three days Orientation ends, but with conclusion comes payoff. For the OLs, their payoff is new connections created and getting feedback from their students. Yang-DiPietro, who had hoped to make an impact on a student’s life, was approached by a girl who asked her to do just that.
“I had this girl come up to me and told me she wanted me to be her mentor for her freshmen year,” said Yang- DiPietro. “She wasn’t even in my group, I just took the time to know her. She’s a really awesome person and I have really high hopes for her.”
Both girls have stayed in touch over the summer and plan on touching base once school starts up again.
Blandino received numerous comments from students and families that thanked him for his work during Orientation. One family thanked him for helping their daughter make friends, find three roommates and opening up enough to go dancing on the first night’s boat cruise event.
“They were happy that they were sending their students to the right place,” said Blandino. “This program is what made them know they made a right decision, knowing that I was a part of them knowing that, that’s powerful.”
Carpenter echoed a similar experience. “Almost every parent says ‘I feel comfortable leaving my child with the Pace family,’ we get tears sometimes,” said Carpenter.
Even though the program is officially over, OLs and staff intend to keep in touch with their group members throughout the year. In addition to being prominent contributors on campus, OLs connect with their groups via a Facebook group where students can ask questions throughout the year and an OL will likely respond with an answer.
The class of 2016 is currently midway through their first week with the Pace Family. In many ways Orientation reflects the overall Pace experience. If you push out of your comfort zone, the connections you make can last a lifetime.