Pre-Orientation Program Eases First-Year Transition

Every upperclassman clearly remembers the unmistakable feeling of their first day on campus. Joyous returning students exchanging welcome back hugs in front of the imposing shadow of Mudd Library can make any average first-year feel even more lonely than they already are. In an attempt to ease the transition into the Oberlin community, student leaders of the Pre-Orientation Program (POP) have created a program for first-years eager to meet fellow students prior to arriving on campus.

Although the Presidentıs Office offered the dominant financial contributions to fund POP in its inaugural year this summer, the program was administered entirely by students with head Coordinator Ben Gleason, a junior, bearing the brunt of the organizational tasks.

"Ben did everything," junior Katie Hamilton said. "the amount of work he did is completely ridiculous." (QUOTE OR 2 FROM BENNY G) Hamilton, Andi Nelson and Maya Leonard-Cahn, all transfer juniors, aided Gleason in the construction and carrying out of the program. "We were the mothers of the idea," Hamilton added.

POP student leaders offered six different trips to incoming first-years, including three backpacking, one hiking, one community service and one trip exploring urban Cleveland. Each trip spanned three nights and four days.

NICK: MAYA DID NOT LEAD A TRIP. KATIE AND I LED THE CLEVELAND TRIP. AND IT WASNıT THE UPPER WEST, JUST THE WEST SIDE OF CLEVELAND, ALSO CALLED OHIO CITY. ARE THOSE QUOTES FROM KATIE PERHAPS?

"It seemed like most of the kids from urban areas went on the Cleveland trip," Leonard-Cahn said. Leonard-Cahn, who led that particular excursion, stayed with about (???) students in a Catholic Worker House in the Upper West side of the city. "We talked to some really neat members of the community who took us on some really great tours ‹ we got to know the neighborhood really well," she said.

Nelson lead the POP community service trip, which stayed in the Lorain County Christ Episcopal Church and aided several organizations, including the Lorain County Bloodbank and the Lorain County Board for Mental Retardation.

Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith mentioned the inclusion of trips not oriented with nature and life in the outdoors as a particular strength of the POP program. "One thing thatıs nice is that (POP) is not exclusively focused on Outing Club trips."

The backpacking trips travelled to scenic Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio, to the Allegheney Mountains in Pennsyvania and to Otter Creek Wilderness in West Virginia. Moreover, co-POP founders Nelson, Hamilton and Leonard-Cahn described preliminary ideas for future programs, including one focusing on the history of Oberlin, and also one concentrating on art.

Also, the POP coordinators hope to conduct an ExCo in the spring semester working on designing trips and teaching leadership skills.

All the coordinators said they have received unequivically positive feedback from participating first-years. "It was neat to see how bonded people got," Hamilton said. "POP is a nice way to informally introduce the College and informally talk about issues before the students face them," Leonard-Cahn added.

Hamilton touched on the importance of introducing surrounding areas to incoming students so as to avoid entrapment in the encompassing collegiate environment. "We wanted students to start thinking about the issues they face at Oberlin. It also introduces them to a place outside the Oberlin community and campus."

Expanding the program to include more first-year next year has become the new focus for the POP coordinators now that the pre-orientation trips have been completed successfully. "We'd like to have 200 students participating next year," Leonard-Cahn said. 40 first-years participated this year.

Although participation in next yearıs Pre-Orientation Program will cost a small fee, the coordinators hope to establish a scholarship fund for financial aid. Assistnt Director of the Student Union Tina Zwegat, who served as the chair of the Orientation Committee, affirmed that increased funds will become necessary for a more large-scale program. "We can't do much more with the budget we were given," she said

Moreover, the coordinators hope to recruit professors and administrators to add diversity and depth to the program. "It's one of our main goals," Hamilton said. "But we don't want to lose the student leadership."

Goldsmith commended the spirit of student leadership that proved the driving foce behind the success of POP. "The students who organized it were very responsible and challenged by the fact that a program like this had never happened at Oberlin," he said.

Zwegat echoed Goldsmith's appraisal of the POP coordinators. "The students should be commended ‹ they did an outstanding job."