Giovanna Macedo and Hedieh Hashemi are the orientation coordinators for 2023. Giovanna is a fourth-year student studying chemistry and immunology, and Hedieh is a fourth-year student studying microbiology. Both of them came to university mid-pandemic and experienced an online orientation, but that did not stop them from coming back every year to help plan the orientation as leaders and marshals. This year, they are excited to lead the orientation team as coordinators!
One might wonder: what is Orientation? The answer is very obvious to Giovanna and me, as well as many other students. But… this but was the foundation we used when planning the Orientation for 2023.
When one thinks of Orientation, things like loud cheers, excitement and music come to mind. And those will always be part of Orientation. Being a team of introverted and extroverted coordinators, Giovanna and I wanted to make sure Orientation was a fine balance between fun and informational, exciting and relaxing. A balance between loud and quiet. We wanted to help Orientees step out of their comfort zone but we didn’t want this to be a requirement to participate in Orientation.
We paid attention to not making assumptions. Is it widely known, for example, what Orientation is? Having grown up in different countries, Giovanna and I know well how different university culture can be across the world. We wanted everyone to be able to make informed choices and participate. Coming into a new place, not knowing anyone, can be very daunting, so we tried to make it less scary by sharing as much detail as we could about what Orientees can expect in each of the events. From making menus for the meals to creating maps of SMC buildings, we tried to share information wherever we could. But there was a big roadblock to this…
How could we share all these details and make them accessible to orientees? As always, technology has come to rescue! We were so excited when we officially got an APP for Orientation. On this mobile app, Orientees will be able to see every single event happening during Orientation and pick and choose which ones they want to attend. They can make their own schedule and they can see the locations using the maps of the buildings outlining all the rooms. We also love the traditions we have at SMC! We love our Hoikety Choik, being the Bed Race champions, and Kelly’s Korner… and all of these have become one degree more accessible using the app!
Speaking of traditions and how much we love them, we have come to realize that as much as traditions are amazing, sometimes we need to break a few to make Orientation work. And one tradition that we broke this year was the duration of Orientation. You can imagine a typical Orientation week to be a few days long, with each day packed with activities from early morning to late at night. We are also all used to wrapping up Orientation the day before classes start, with closing ceremonies and a heartwarming Kelly’s Korner. This year, however, we have decided to have a later start to our days during the main days of Orientation and, instead, add a few days to our Orientation “week”. And when we say few days, we mean… 10 days. Each day will have one or two events, and orientees are encouraged to go to as many of these events as they like! With a more balanced schedule for each day, we are hoping that everyone, including our staff, is able to get enough rest each day, and have time to process the events.
While making every effort to design an orientation that makes Orientees feel at home, we used SMC’s core values as our guide. With sustainability being one of these values, we tried hard to make our Orientation as environmentally sustainable as possible. With St. Mike’s becoming a Blue Community earlier this year, we are following the recommendations provided for the Blue Communities. We are eliminating the use of single use plastic water bottles and cans and encouraging our orientees to use their provided reusable water bottles. Likewise, when choosing materials for our kits, we made sure to pick ones that orientees can use beyond Orientation. This way we tried to reduce our waste as much as possible!
We started planning this orientation with a simple question: “What is orientation any way?”. And what came after that has been a great mixture of traditions with innovations. An orientation that is fresh, but familiar at the same time. Soon, the newest members of the SMC family will arrive, and the magic of Hoikety Choik will once more bring our community together!
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