Elisabeth Jackson and Stacey Standridge have only known each other since Sunday, but the two incoming freshmen already seem like old friends.
As participants in the student orientation program IntroDUCKtion, they discovered similar academic interests. Now, the two plan to take classes together in the fall.
The academic advising offered during the two-day session was helpful, Standridge said, but the best part of IntroDUCKtion was the chance to meet new people.
“This is awesome because I met Elisabeth,” Standridge said as she hugged her new friend in the EMU Monday afternoon.
Jackson and Standridge are just two of an estimated 3,000 incoming freshmen and transfer students who will take part in seven IntroDUCKtion sessions held at the University this summer. With only 2,400 in attendance last year, that number makes this summer’s IntroDUCKtion group the largest ever, said Karen Dickinson, one of two student directors for the program.
IntroDUCKtion is sponsored every summer by the Student Orientation office and includes six two-day sessions held throughout July, as well as a one-day orientation for transfer students only. There will also be a one-day orientation session held in Hawaii on Aug. 6.
Dickinson said students who attend IntroDUCKtion are at more of an advantage than new students who come only to the Week of Welcome orientation session in September because they have the opportunity to register for fall classes.
During IntroDUCKtion, she said, students and parents also receive information on a wide range of topics — everything from what classes to take to whether they should bring a car to school.
Going through the orientation program also gives students the chance to meet other students and become familiar with the campus, she said. For many students, this familiarity “eases a lot of their tension about the school,” she added.
The 17 University students who make up the summer orientation staff (SOS) are crucial to the success of the program, Dickinson said. Each SOS leader is assigned to a group of 25 to 40 students whom they stay with throughout the IntroDUCKtion session, she said, allowing students to form a relationship with the orientation staff member.
This year, Dickinson said, SOS members are taking on even more responsibility than in past years, with a greater emphasis on one-on-one time between students and leaders, and an increased SOS presence in all IntroDUCKtion activities.
Parents who choose to come are also included in IntroDUCKtion activities. Dickinson said students attend some information sessions with their parents, but other sessions are held for students or parents only.
Many parents were surprised at but pleased with the range of information presented at the orientation session, she said. In particular, Dickinson said, she received positive feedback from many parents on a presentation concerning how to make good choices about drugs, sex and alcohol — issues she said are often avoided at college orientations.
Montana native Laura Pikul, who attended IntroDUCKtion with her son, said the event was helpful — especially a session on how parents can relate to students when they return home from their first year at the University.
Pikul, who has an older son in college, said she wished she had been to a similar orientation before he left for school.
“If I would have had this information then,” she said, “I would have understood him differently.”