About 1,500 new students will arrive to campus to join the Elon University community Aug. 23, and the New Student Orientation Program will be a rather enthusiastic welcome for new students. Made up of more than 100 orientation leaders and coordinators, the program is responsible for planning and executing the opening weekend activities.
Katie Hight, director of new student programs and transitions, emphasized the fact that Elon’s opening weekend is a collaboration among different departments in order to make the initial transition to Elon smooth.
“Opening weekend at Elon is a collective effort that truly reflects the sense of community on campus,” Hight said. “New Student Orientation, Residence Life, Physical Plant and countless other staff and faculty members dedicate themselves to ensuring a smooth transition experience for the new students and families.”
As part of the New Student Orientation Head Staff, senior Kyle Whitaker is involved in planning opening weekend activities as well as training the orientation leaders who will transition new students into Elon life. Whitaker explains that opening weekend is on Head Staff’s mind as they enter training.
[quote]We like to remind ourselves that we were first-year students once and that we’ve been through all of this, too. -- Kyle Whitaker, New Student Orientation Head Staff member[/quote]
“I think the biggest thing we wanted to accomplish as a group was to make sure that opening weekend goes as smoothly as possible,” Whitaker said. “We also train orientation leaders and that is a huge part of our job, but ultimately everything we do goes back to Move-In Day and orientation weekend.”
Satisfaction of the students and their families are key to Hight’s planning for each year’s opening. Hight believes this is what sets Elon’s program apart from others around the country. Changes have been made to this year’s weekend programs in order to showcase more of the community immediately.
“The new Global Neighborhood buildings will house new students, so orientation staff will be there on Move-In Day,” Hight said. “Additionally, we have made a few changes to Saturday’s events: the Farewell Picnic will be a compostable event to showcase the university’s commitment to sustainability. The Pep Rally and Phoenix Extravaganza on Saturday evening will be in Alumni Gym and Moseley Center to highlight the student center of campus.”
Despite the changes to the program, Whitaker assures that every step of the planning process was infused with the knowledge the head staff took from their experiences in order to make the program effective for incoming students.
“A lot of what I experienced during my first year influences my perspective on orientation and how it’s run,” Whitaker said. “We make a lot of choices based on experience and knowledge of what worked well for us, what could have been better. We like to remind ourselves that we were first-year students once and that we’ve been through all of this, too.”