Freshman experience; breaking the ice

Pizzagirl
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:07:59 +0000

Pizzagirl, I’m not sure what you’re expecting to see here. Other than running orientation programs with games and bonding exercises, familiarizing kids with the campus and services, what else is it that you think colleges could to to break the ice?



Beats me – I certainly don’t have the answers! I was trying to get the discussion going in the direction of UNIQUE things that certain colleges do, that AREN’T variants of what fifty other colleges do. The Minerva Houses you referenced are a great example, as is the UC Berkeley swabbing.

I’m just thinking through how people “mix it up” in business settings and how that’s facilitated. You could do something like a bingo where you get points for finding / identifying the fellow freshman who was born in Luxembourg, or went bungee jumping in Australia, or is one of a set of quadruplets, for example. You could do creative endeavors for the non-creative, like pottery painting. You could do a beach party or swim party at the fitness center. Certainly those colleges that are near big cities take advantage of sending the students to pro baseball games – but is there some other creative idea that’s different from sending the kids to Wrigley Field or Camden Yards? I don’t know - I’m just thinking out loud here. I guess I was wondering what other colleges did that was unique and different beyond the usual pre-orientation week events (outdoors, leadership, service) and the usual orientation week events (meet your dormmates, RA, advisors and form a bond with a smaller group). That’s all, honest!