The Daily Gamecock

‘Pillars’ introduces freshmen to USC

51 incoming first-year students participate in extended orientation

For 51 of the approximately 4,000 new Gamecocks, this year’s orientation was extended from one to five days, from July 17 to 21, as part of the second year of the Pillars for Carolina program. Freshmen who signed up paid $350 to stay four nights in on-campus residence halls, learning about Carolina’s history and traditions.

 

Theresa Sexton, coordinator for Student Government and the faculty resource for the Pillars for Carolina program, said the transition from high school to college is particularly important.

“College-age students experience a great deal of growth,” Sexton said. “Pillars for Carolina is a great opportunity for new students to reflect on who they are and who they want to become during the college years.”

For students, reasons for participation in the program ranged from figuring out the layout of campus to making new friends for their first semester.

“Pillars was an opportunity for me to get on the campus that I fell in love with and meet more of the people that helped me fall in love with it,” incoming physics student Johnathon Clark said.

As part of the opening ceremony at Williams-Brice Stadium, students learned how to dance to “Sandstorm” in preparation for their first football game.

A much more traditional dance lesson was held on the Horseshoe, where mentors and staff members taught the incoming freshmen how to do South Carolina’s state dance, the Carolina Shag. “It was great to see people helping others learn the dance, laughing together and just having a great time,” incoming sport and entertainment management student Victoria Jordan said.

Jordan also said she particularly enjoyed reading to a group of children as part of Cocky’s Reading Express, a program started by Student Government and USC’s School of Library and Information Science to help promote reading to underprivileged elementary students. Executive Director Mitchell Hammonds said the Pillars staff decided to include the Reading Express as one of the activities because of its value to the community.

“Pillars sees community service as one of our biggest traditions here at USC, so we try to develop that into our curriculum and help them learn the importance of getting involved,” he said.

The students also participated in a “Trash Your Values” exercise, where students list some of the most important objects, people, goals, memories and places in their lives and then have to systematically remove each of them until only one is left. Student Body Vice President Chase Mizzell, director of programs for Pillars, said that for him, facilitating “Trash Your Values” it allowed students to re-focus on what’s actually important in their lives.

“For me to watch them go through that experience and have the belief and hope that they will pursue those dreams and passions and goals, that floored me,” he said. “It makes me expectant and excited for what their next four years and the rest of their life will bring.”

Hammonds said the main goal of the program is to introduce those incoming freshmen to student leaders already at Carolina and allow them to connect on a personal basis.

“It’s all about the intentional conversations that we have, conversations about what they’re interested in, what they want to know about the university and more about what our mentors have to offer them.”

Inemesit Effiong, an incoming nursing student from Charleston, S.C., said those conversations, occasionally lasting until the wee hours of the morning, were some of the most memorable experiences from the program.

“It really broke down the barriers and helped me to step out of my comfort zone,” Effiong said.

Though this year’s weeklong orientation marks just the second year of the program, Hammonds said it has already enjoyed substantial successes.

According to Hammonds, tentative calculations have put average GPAs for last year’s Pillars participants right above a 3.4. He said the staff expects to have more data after the program continues for a few more years. But Taylor Cain, the program’s graduate intern and former student body vice president, pointed out other trends among participants, including greater involvement in student organizations. She hopes assessments of this year’s group will yield similar data.

Participating students say they will enter their freshman year more prepared than they would have been otherwise. “I believe I am a step ahead of most of the incoming freshmen,” Jordan said. “I know my way around campus. I have already started forming new friendships. I am aware of the resources the university offers, and plan to take advantage of all of the opportunities.”

Jordan, Clark and Effiong all said they would consider applying to become extended orientation mentors for the Pillars program next year.

“If I can help another student and welcome them like I was welcomed, I would be honored,” Effiong said.

Hammonds and Mizzell both said they’d like to see some of this year’s participants take those roles as mentors and have current mentors move into executive board positions. Cain said the staff would be working on continuing to garner support for Pillars.

“We’d love to have more buy-in from students, faculty and staff,” Cain said “The support we’ve received from the USC community thus far has been great and we hope to continue that tradition.”

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