The class of 2024 missed out on many traditional opportunities during their freshman year because of COVID-19, and despite Chancellor Woodson’s announced return to normalcy, the class of 2025 will not receive a typical summer orientation as well. Instead of experiencing the traditional overnight event, first year and transfer students are required to begin the transition to college life through a hybrid orientation that takes place from June to the end of July.
According to Cameron Hill, the associate director of New Student Programs, the hybrid format will create the best experience for everybody regardless of their comfort level and needs while still preparing them for life at NC State like the annual event is meant to do. In order to do this, the 2021 New Student Orientation was divided into various sections featuring both required and optional opportunities that centered around academic and logistical information about NC State, social opportunities and pack pride.
The first part of this year’s orientation is an online module that is required for students and encouraged for families. The module is self-paced but must be completed before attending the second part, a virtual half-day Zoom session that is required for students and encouraged for families. The virtual session varies based on the student’s academic program and consists of both presentations and small group interactions.
The third and final part of the 2021 New Student Orientation is an optional campus visit between June 28 and July 30. Pre-registration is required for the campus visits, according to Hill. The visit is a three-hour event in the morning and includes optional “Choose Your Own Adventure” activities afterwards.
“Basically, all kinds of offices on campus are hosting different opportunities for people to stop by,” Hill said. “They can go to Gold Residence Hall to see a model showroom, they can go to Well Rec and do a scavenger hunt or to the libraries to do a self-guided tour. There’s all kinds of things if you want to make a day out of it.”
Hill referred to the 2021 Summer Orientation as a transition between last year’s completely virtual experience and the traditional in-person experience.
“We’re really the first large-scale event that’s been happening in Talley Student Union,” Hill said. “April is when we decided to kind of do this hybrid model where everyone would need to experience orientation and get all of the required information, but we would also have this supplemental in-person experience that they could do.”
Alex Madej, a third-year studying biochemistry and a first-time orientation leader, said that the only real difference between the traditional New Student Orientation and the current hybrid model is the replacement of the overnight experience with a more formal campus tour.
“The programming has been basically the same,” Madej said. “It’s the same sharing of resources, campus visit, facilitation and creating conversations with the first year students and transfer students. So it has the same opportunities, it’s just the only thing is that you used to stay overnight.”
Hill said one of the main reasons New Student Programs emphasized the formal campus tour this year is to try and make up for the prospective student-guided tours and in-person admissions events incoming students did not have due to COVID-19.
According to Kingsley Hairs, a second-year studying science, technology and society, and a first-time orientation leader, less formal, virtual transition talks — interactive Q&A-like events — are an additional resource for students. Instagram stories from NC State accounts also highlight various components of NC State, such as dining and parking information. The goal of these additional opportunities is to give students a chance to learn more about day-to-day campus life.
Hill said all of the parts of the hybrid orientation work together to achieve the New Student Programs’ goal of creating a foundation of success for incoming students and their families.
“A big marker for us is if they leave our programs feeling prepared and excited to come,” Hill said. “We feel like we’ve done our job by getting them information about what academic life will be like, what this community is like, how they can get connected to it and start forming those connections with students, faculty and staff… the expectations of campus and just in general, how to start setting goals for however many years they will be here at NC State.”
Comparatively, Hairs said his personal intentions as an orientation leader this year are to make an impact on the lives of incoming students by helping them start their NC State experience off right.
“In lieu of COVID, I didn’t necessarily get a full on-campus experience,” Hairs said. “That drove me further in solidifying my decision to become an orientation leader just because I want to get the entire campus experience and see what is all out there and what I can look forward to, as well as sharing that information with future first-year students that will be coming to State.”
According to Hairs, the biggest obstacle to achieving these goals this year has been the uncertainty of whether the program would be able to operate in person or not.
“While we were undergoing training throughout the summer, we were constantly being updated by Cameron and also the rest of the members of staff. The question that was being asked the most was ‘Will we be having in-person orientation?’” Hairs said. “The answer was always, ‘We are not sure. We are checking into that. That is all to be announced.’”
Madej also said the flexibility of the situation was one of the biggest obstacles of getting ready for the 2021 New Student Orientation.
“I feel like that was definitely something that weighed on all of us,” Madej said. “Once it was finally announced that we were doing the in-person format, it was so exciting. We were all so happy about it.”
While Madej and Hairs both viewed the uncertainty of the orientation format as the biggest obstacle, Hill said that from a staff perspective, the challenge of trying to meet everyone’s expectations and minimizing the risk for family and staff was the hardest part of preparing for this year’s orientation.
Despite all of the obstacles and the challenges still to come, the 2021 New Student Orientation is going well, according to Hairs. More information about other upcoming new student events, such as Wolfpack Welcome Week and Convocation, will come at a later date.
Visit the New Student Programs Webpage for more information about New Student Orientation.
Click here for more information about specific department opportunities.
Click here to register for “Choose Your Own Adventure” events as a first-year student.
Click here to register for “Choose Your Own Adventure” events as a transfer student.
