Early Monday morning, the Patterson Hall lobby is bustling with freshmen and parents as a new orientation session for the Class of 2018 begins. Orientation Leader Jamelle Brownlee navigates through a crowd as he ushers new students into lines and check-in rooms, smiling even as the noise rises.
The new student orientation process that began on June 13 is now in full swing, introducing hundreds of new Gamecocks to the campus in each bi-weekly session.
This year’s program is markedly different from the orientations of years past. Freshman Orientation became a two-day event after the arrival of the new Director of New Student Orientation, Bethany Naser, in January.
“The reason was to provide a more comprehensive picture of the Carolina experience, so freshmen are able to not just see an academic advisor and go through registration, but also learn about the expectations of the university and learn about the history and traditions,” Naser said.
Due to the new two-day setup, the university is accommodating freshmen and their parents in the Patterson Hall dorm overnight.
Also included in the program expansion was a scheduling change shifting the first sessions of orientation to occur later in the summer than in the past. The pause provides time for students to graduate from high school and to settle into the mindset of being a college student before being introduced to the university, Naser said.
To adapt to larger orientation groups and extended sessions, the Office of New Student Orientation doubled the number of student Orientation Leaders this year and intensified their training. The student leaders have been preparing to welcome new students since January.
“It’s just a little bit deeper. We talk about what kind of legacy they want to leave at the school. We want them to know that they’re becoming part of something that’s greater than themselves,” said Team Leader Rebecca Piner.
For Orientation Leaders, the responsibility of receiving and informing new students is an intense, summer-long commitment. Yet, despite the grueling hours, they meet freshmen and transfer students with energy and passion.
“To be able to be that kind of representative of the university and to really be able to be a role model and a knowledge base takes a lot of work. They have to become the South Carolina experience for these families,” Naser said.
Orientation is a formative experience for freshmen and transfer students, and Orientation Leaders and staff at Carolina take the responsibility of shaping that experience very seriously.
“Freshmen are just like sponges. You have a chance to give them all this information and they listen to it. We give them their foundation,” Brownlee said.