College is coming so fast, I can barely believe it. I just went to my orientation and I think this is the event that totally sealed the deal. I am officially a college freshman now. I found my orientation very interesting and informative. The university’s main goal of the orientation was to inform and prepare the new students and parents for college life.
In my opinion, I actually learned more about myself and the different people around me at my orientation. In fact, I did not even end up walking around the campus to familiarize myself with it. This orientation was primarily a self growth and enhancement workshop in my opinion. We watched and participated in a lot of different exercises over the course of a two day period.
My favorite activity was one that dealt with diversity. The orientation leader asked a fairly large group of students that were sitting in folding chairs in a circle different questions. Some of the questions included, “Are you a Christian?” “Do you play a musical instrument?” “Have you ever been offended by someone that used derogatory terms?” or “Have you ever stereotyped someone before getting to know them?” If a question applied to a person, he or she would stand up in their chair.
I thought this activity was very interesting. I learned a lot about different types of people. I learned that people may seem different on the outside, but we all have at least some things in common. Before judging people, we should get to know them because people may be going through the exact same things as someone else.
I am very excited to start school in the fall. Thank you URI!
Diversity Game
By dannysrider - Posted on July 6th, 2009
I have a friend at Rhode Island. She loves it there. My own college orientation experience was less than satisfactory. I have to give the school credit, it was very academically oriented- all kinds of tips about studying, classes, and living college life in general. It was also alarmingly sexual assault oriented. I'm sure that's a problem at nearly all schools, but it's upsetting that such a small school could have so many assaults and actually needs to make talking about it a major part of orientation.
As for diversity, I usually cringe at the word because it signifies someone's about to talk about identity politics. Fortunately, it looks like the activity at your orientation was, in your words, more about our common humanity and similarities than trumpeting our differences and dividing people into categories. Good luck at school!
Incidentally, I'm not crazy about my school, but that's because I hate people. Especially people at my school (the excessive date rape seminars at orientation should have been a huge red flag... of course, by that time it was too late anyway).
Wow that really sucks about your school. I hope it has gotten a little better at least.
Thanks for all feedback too. I am really excited, but getting a little nervous about starting in the fall. One thing I heard about URI is that everyone from their high school goes to URI, so I am assuming that everyone will already have their own friends and cliques before I even get there. Being that I am from CA, I am a little nervous. But I feel a better after going to orientatioin, everyone was super nice :)
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away" ~Hilary Cooper