Everyone on the Hill remembers their First Year Orientation trip. Whether they toured a baseball museum, hiked a mountain, or canoed for miles, everyone has memories of their first college friends and first week as a Hamilton student. For those involved in First-Year Orientation, this year was unlike any other due to COVID.
Differences include orientation groups being assigned by residential life floor, new training for orientation leaders, entirely different trips and activities, and many others. I reached out to members of Hamilton faculty, Orientation Trip Leaders, and incoming first-year students to ask them about their experience in this year’s First Year Orientation.
The first group of people I reached out to were incoming first-year students. Deniz Tek ’24 stated that, “Orientation was a really fun experience and I got to really bond with the people in my suite. I wish I could have met more people around campus, but given the pandemic I totally understand why that wasn’t exactly possible.”
Michael Lau ’24 echoed the same sentiments but expanded on his day-to-day life during orientation: “Every day we would meet for breakfast in our groups and then either play games to bond or have zoom calls where we got to talk about the school, things like diversity and inclusion, and a bunch of other stuff. I enjoyed it but I wish I could’ve gone on a more traditional trip like past years.”
I also spoke to members of the Hamilton Community who had a better understanding of all the changes that took place to make First-Year Orientation happen this year such as Orientation Trip Leaders and the directors of First-Year Experience. In addressing the differences this year held when compared to previous years, Orientation Trip Leader Meredith Enslow ’23 stated, “Orientation was flipped on its head in pretty much every way this year. We also didn’t get to have orientation trips at all (so no Adirondack, Exploration, Outreach Adventure trips), which was by far the biggest change since last year.” Another Orientation Trip Leader Patricia Shiebler ’21 echoed this sentiment, saying, “Usually trips have at least some time off campus, but this year that wasn’t possible so we had to get creative with our group activities and outdoor time.” Meredith also spoke about the daily life of First Year Students during orientation, “An average day usually meant waking up and meeting for breakfast around 9, then either playing bonding games or having a big Zoom discussion. We had three speakers on Zoom who facilitated conversations: one regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion; another about multiculturalism; and one about how to have difficult conversations. Those were usually in the morning, and the rest of the day was meant for just hanging out and trying to build the same friendships as in normal years, but it was definitely harder in that sense.”
In addition to the many differences and difficulties that came to the First-Year Orientation program this year, there were certainly some positives as well. Orientation Trip Leader Abigail Roller ’21 explained some of these positives stating, “On a more positive note, for “trips” where participants did bond well this year, I think there is more potential for them to maintain those friendships through the year since they are living in such close proximity. Another cool addition this year was the addition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) sessions, which I think enabled students to connect with their groups on a deeper level than they normally would, and helped prepare them for the kinds of important discussions that will happen throughout their college lives.”
