Guest blog by Erin Wong
Hello! My name is Erin Wong and I’m in my last year of Kinesiology from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Since November 2013, I was given a great opportunity to be a part of the Federation Orientation Committee (FOC) team as a representative of the Student Success Office.
Through this experience I was able to work in a team with 31 other amazing FOC members from all our six different faculties and wonderful Orientation staff from all over campus. Our team helped plan Orientation Week 2014 for all incoming first-year students from check-ins all the way to Saturday night events including the Toga Party.
This year, for our Wednesday night event, we started something new. I helped plan World of Waterloo, which was an event held both on and off campus that introduced all first-year students to the city of Waterloo. I think an event like this is exactly what our Orientation Week needed.
For a lot of first-year students, they are not from Waterloo and not only are they moving away from home to start life at a whole new school, but they are also starting their life in a whole new city. This event helped to show students that there is more to Waterloo outside of school. It taught students how to take the public transit system and also introduced them to places in the city such as Uptown Waterloo, Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex and also Waterloo Park.
Ultimately, I think what speaks the most to the success of this event, and Orientation Week in general, is the amazing feedback we have heard from first-year students. Hearing their positive experiences and how much they enjoyed it made the long hours, sleepless nights and stress all worth it.
