New Student Orientation Results

Hell Josh and List Serve-
Here are the results from the query I sent out awhile ago on New Student
Orientation.  Also, at the bottom is results from Sally Watkins when she
inquired about service and orientation.  Thank you to all who responded
back!
Angela 
********************************************
We have a very pro active orientation staff. Not sure what they are up to
this year, but check out their website www.uvsc.edu/orientation
<http://www.uvsc.edu/orientation> Be sure to select the orientation options
page. 
Have Fun! 
Kathy 
Kathryn Van Wagoner
Coordinator, Math Tutorial Services
Utah Valley State College
801-863-8411
VanWagka@uvsc.edu
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It might be helpful to contact the Center for Volunteerism and Community
Service at Occidental College in Los Angeles.  They have a program (or at
least had a program while I was there) called Into the Streets that occurs
during the week-long freshman orientation.  While it wasn't mandatory of
course, many students participated as it offered a wide variety of
interesting projects to work on.  If the CVCS doesn't run the program, they
can at least refer you to the department that does.  Good luck!

With Best Regards,

Kyle Kitson
Program Coordinator,
Civic Engagement Training and Technical Assistance for National Service
Programs (CETTA)

Constitutional Rights Foundation
601 South Kingsley Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Phone: (213) 316-2136
Fax: (213) 386-0459
Toll-free: (888) 900-1180
http://www.crf-usa.org
********************************************
The one foundation that is there is an attempt at a structured service
learning
base with active reflection.  We send the students to 3 different projects
and
have them at the same time think about service while doing service.  We ask
them to write a newspaper article about it or make a video, these will
resemble
advocacy pieces in a way.  The reflection is very important so that the
students
remain active throughout the year.  Service is not a mandatory part of the
orientation
process but a great pre-service presentation and student involvement always
makes it a success.  Let me know if I can help out with anything else.  Take
care and have a great day.

Stan
sthangaraj@lgc.edu
********************************************
I found the following in our program models database (available online at
http://www.compact.org/programmodels): 
First-year orientation
Wheaton College, MA

Every year for nine years, first-year orientation at Wheaton College ended
with an "urban plunge"- a day of service in the nearby town of Attleboro,
Massachusetts. The urban plunge consistently outstripped all other
orientation events in its success. However, there was a problem. Students
left the day of service exhilarated, but without any concrete ways to
connect this isolated experience to their academic and social lives at
college. When a committee of faculty, students, and administrators got
together last year to reconsider the freshman orientation, they decided to
make service the centerpiece of the week. They proceeded to find ways to
link the experience of service and community engagement into what they
perceived as the three major elements of campus life: academic, social, and
extracurricular. 
The academic element began the summer before students arrived on campus. In
the months preceding their first year, incoming Wheaton students are
traditionally asked to complete an academic assignment. With the newly
devised introduction to service, the students' academic assignment was
carefully selected. First, they would read "The Call of Service," Robert
Cole's Pulitzer Prize-winning book about youth and community service. 
Then, they would translate their understanding of Cole's ideas into a
community engagement project. Students came up with a variety of ways to do
this. One student assessed needs in Westborough, Massachusetts, and produced
his findings in a photo documentary. Another student interviewed four
community leaders to write a social science essay on community issues in
Westwood. When the incoming class convened for orientation week, students
presented to their peers the work that they had done in response to their
reading on service. 
Having introduced students to service through an intellectual and
experiential exercise, the planning committee organized an event that would
introduce new students to the ways that talking and thinking about service
can build community. Upperclassmen transformed a house on campus into the
"Salon du Service," an intimate café for 500 students to talk about the
ideas of community. Over coffee and cakes, first-year students questioned a
panel of undergraduates about their service experiences at Wheaton and then
responded, talk-show style, with stories from their own service work over
the summer. Older students facilitated informed reflection at each dinner
table. 

When the day of service arrived, the class of 2001 was prepared as none of
their predecessors had been. Understanding the context of their service, and
armed with the tools for processing their experiences, all 450 first years
sampled the variety of places where they might contribute. Adding to the
community building feel of the week, staff and faculty who lived in the
neighborhood joined students and presented information about the history and
population of the town. 

Several weeks after the day of service, site leaders visited campus and left
information about the services interested students might offer at their
sites. The repeated emphasis on service during orientation and the follow-up
visit left students with a clear guide to how they could integrate service
into their future activities at Wheaton. A far cry from the exhilarating but
isolated urban plunge the year before, students' introduction to service
this year- from the call of service, to the café of service, to a day of
service- was imbued with meaning and value, showing students how service
could be an integral part of their social, academic, and extracurricular
lives at college. 
"City Serve"

King's College, PA
At King's College, an urban campus in Wilkes-Barre, PA, we have engaged in
several strategies to promote Civic Engagement: One of these strategies is
the co-curricular initiative with faculty: As part of our orientation week
for incoming students, we spend an afternoon on a project called "City
Serve." This past year all 430 incoming first year students spent one
afternoon in service projects throughout the city of Wilkes-Barre. Some
students went to a soup kitchen, others to day care centers, after school
tutorial programs, homes for the elderly, to work in the city park, and
other sites. The idea was to instill within our new students from the very
beginning of their time at King's that service to the local Wilkes-Barre
community ought to be part of their educational experience at King's. Each
group of students was accompanied by a faculty member who was able to share
in the experience and subsequently conduct a reflection session. Having been
introduced to service possibilities in their first week, many of these
students have continued on throughout the year in service to the city of
Wilkes-Barre. 
New Student Community Service Project 
Claremont McKenna College, CA
Every September, as a part of the College's new student orientation program,
the entire freshman class, new transfer students, student orientation
sponsors, resident assistants, student career consultants, student community
service coordinators, and student academic liaisons participate in a
volunteer program. 

The project students undertake, and the logistical support required for the
project are determined during the summer months by the Director of
Internships and Volunteer Programs. Projects in recent years have included:
fence painting and spreading sand (seven tons!) throughout the playground of
a local pre-school; cleaning up the local Little League field; landscaping
the grounds and interior painting of the Crippled Children's Society; and
landscaping the grounds of a local public school. 

The Director has attempted to select projects which: provide new students
with an opportunity to see they can make a tangible difference; provide
students with a common bonding experience; and serve as vehicles to let
students know about other "helping" opportunities in which they might
involve themselves during their time at the College. Most importantly, the
project - an outreach effort - serves to establish relationships with the
local community. 

The New Student Community Service project was initiated six years ago when
student government agreed to give up a portion of the orientation program
dedicated to social programming. Students were initially reticent about
relinquishing that time. However, after the first entering class
successfully completed their project they challenged each succeeding class
to do a bigger or better job and the project took on a life of its own. 
I hope these prove helpful, 
Jenn
jmeeropol@compact.org
********************************************
For the past 6 years, we have ended our 4-day New Student 
Orientation with a service project.  We have planted almost 3,000 
trees and 4,000 tulips for residents of our community; we have built 
an entry garden to a Prairie Restoration Project; we have constructed 
a fence and planted tulips in a pocket garden on main street; we have 
landscaped a "Welcome to Morris" billboard.  This year we are 
planning a door-to-door winter clothing collection for distribution 
by the local Salvation Army store at their Annual Coat, Mitten, etc 
Days.  Carol
mccanncs@mrs.umn.edu
********************************************
Hey there-
Our campus does what is called First Serve on the Saturday of orientation.
It's a service project that involves the new incoming students, student
leaders, community members as well as faculty & staff.  We limit the
projects to about 2 1/2 hours each and within a 10 mile radius from campus.
We set up about 20 - 22 different projects.  This is the 11th year of doing
this and we have over 90% new student participation.  The goals are twofold,
to teach new students about the "culture of service" on our campus and to
get them more familiar with their new "hometown".  It has been great for
community and campus relations too.
Jen
Jennifer A. Skaggs  MS
Coordinator for Community Service-Learning
Asbury College
Wilmore,  KY  40390
859.858.3511 x2378
jen.skaggs@asbury.edu
********************************************
http://www.usd.edu/fye/orientation.html is the website for the University of
South Dakota's
Sarah Wittmuss
swittmus@usd.edu
******************************************
Sally Watkins results:
I did not expect this many responses. I appreciate those who shared
their experience with New Student Orientation and service. This message
contains all the responses. Many people were interested in having this
information, so I decided to distribute to the whole list. I will
forward any others I receive.  Thanks again.
Sally

_______________________________________________________

We have a Saturday morning service trip during Welcome Week.  It is
advertised to all students.  Our Welcome Week Leaders (same as
Orientation
Leaders) encourage students to attend.  Actually students who attend a
certain number of events can turn in a card for a drawing (I think!)
The
service trip is outdoor environmental (low risk) so that students can
feel
accomplished at the end of the day.  There is a small reflection
activity
and they receive the standard T-shirt and pizza lunch.  What is unique
about this site is that we go back to the site later in the Fall and in
the
Spring.  Going back to the same site triggers those who previously
attended
to do it again and bring their new friends.

I worked at a school that did a very large multiple site service day.
It
was a tradition with the students.  I am not sure how it started.

Laurianne Brown

At our college, all incoming freshman are invited to do an afternoon of
service.  We have incoming classes of around 400.  We had around 175
students participate.  I arranged for them to be split up between a
handful
of organizations:  3 nursing homes, Meals on Wheels, the public library,
an
group home for persons with mental and physical disabilities, a
nonprofit
dealing with family issues etc.  Each group was led by two SOS's.
(Upperclassmen who guide the student over the first few months of
college).
After the service the student were divided into even smaller groups.
Each
group was invited to attend a meal at a professor or administrators
house.

The students enjoyed it and the organizations were elated.  Of course we

only got about half the students to attend since it was an orientation
option.  I would have hoped for more.  However, you have to weigh the
value
of having mandated volunteerism vs. letting them have the choice and see

which you think is better.

Another problem with just an afternoon of service, is that many of the
volunteer activities don't end up being as meaningful as say a service
learning component to a class.  Many will end up being manual labor
types of
things.

Carrie Westra

When I was at Eastern Michigan University we began a version of "taking
it to the streets" by having a 1/2 day service
project (optional) as the 4th day of orientation. It worked well. We
typically got 100-200 incoming freshman of 1500 that
attended orientation. We included a reflection piece as well as some pre
info education material. I always thought too that
doing an alternative break/weekend similar to the colleges that do
week-long wilderness trips would work as well.

Jason E. Camis

Hi Sally - our College 100 group has been involved in a short term
project at a local early childhood center that was started because the
community felt the need
to give the African Amer. students and their parents in the neighborhood
some extra help. It was a beautiful example of a grassroots community
effort. I have
gotten a morning with our students. I explain how the community
determined the need for the center and we talk about what it was like
for them to be 2-5, some
of their early memories etc. Then we go to Educare Childcare Center and
read stories and play with the kids. It's not enough time, but they get
a taste of service
and everyone leaves with a feeling of wanting more...so that encourages
them to get involved. Small and simple, but I think it has a positive
effect.

Donna Halsband

We do "Into the Streets,  a long ˝ day of volunteer service.  We have a
first year seminar program for 3 hours credit that runs through the
semester
and groups that run during orientation.    When all works well, the
service
group, the orientation group and the first year seminar class are the
same,
16 students  the student leader for the orientation group and the
faculty
member for the First Year Seminar.  All do the service together.

John Eby
Messiah College

In the past I've done "passive" service projects. When I was at a
four-year
school we did a "Donate a Dime" during summer orientations and had the
students vote on their exit evaluations for one of two local charities.
Then
during Welcome Week we invited a representative from the winning agency
to
come to New Student Convocation and accept the check. This year I'm at a

two-year school and am starting a fall experiential orientation day. We
will
have a series of challenges for each orientation group to complete and
one
will be a service project. We will be putting together school supply
packs
for kids. I plan on having several groups decorate paper bags for the
packs
and then have other groups stuff them. We'll see how it goes! We are
trying
to get our service program going so I want to tell new students right
away
that service is important to our campus. Good luck!

Ashley Wood

We have a "trips" portion of our orientation for all first years. About
13
years ago we started an outdoor orientation program called MOO (Midd
Outdoor
Orient) and currently about 300 students go on outdoor hikes, bike
trips,
rock climbing, etc., through that program.

About 11 years ago we started a program called Volunteer Preview, which
involves about 50 new students and 14 returning student leaders. We meet
for
~ 2.5 days, doing work site service project during the two days. We
start
with an opening cookout, giving participants an introduction to one
another
and their new community. The next day we break into groups of 8-10 and
do a
service project at a variety of work sites for the bulk of the day.
There's
some group free time in the late afternoon up at our mountain campus,
where
we have evening activities and spend the night. The next day we again go
to
various work sites and then meet at a play along a nearby river for a
closing
circle and cookout. The next day there are optional service or fun type
of
activities (because of circumstances linked to the other programs and
religious holidays).

About 4-5 years ago we required that all students participate in the
program
and then we added a This Is Vermont program, which takes the remaining
almost 200 students.

Tiffany

At LaGrange College, we have an optional service component to our
orientation.  However, we still get some awesome numbers
of students.  These are the activities we did last year:
1. Interact with kids, mentor them and see the joys of it.
2. Painting a community center or a Habitat House, they always love this
project.
3. Building project- this is not quite as successful if you have a
skilled crew to help who monopolize the project.  In
that case, the students just stand and watch, a horrible start to their
understanding of service.
I would also recommend an environmental project such as planting trees
or a clean-up.  However, Sally, the success of all of
these projects directly depend on the pre-reflection session you have
with them and the post service reflection session.
Our main goal is to have a reflection session that asks them to ponder
what the next steps are for a true service minded
person so that the students do not just leave with the one time
experience of service. This way, they will have a stake in
the project and make it an ongoing experience.  I hope this helps.

Stan Thangaraj

California Baptist University has a clean up day in Riverside in
conjunction
with a local community organization, Keep Riverside Clean and
Beautiful.  If
your community has such an organization, they are great to work with.
One
thing I would suggest is to request a site that can accommodate all of
your
students and not spread your students out.  (For example, We had 175
students participate in clearing some brush from a field.)  The
community
organization can usually find such a site if you contact them now.

Hope this is helpful.
Tracy Ward

We have a one day "service plunge" event during first year orientation
where students work in groups to do direct service
projects in the local community (projects include helping to sort and
label food at a Food Bank, helping a local rural town
with community improvement projects such as painting and clean-up of
buildings or park areas, visiting a local elder care
facility and participating in a group activity with residents, etc.)
Two or three upper level students help lead each of
these activities and lead reflection discussions with the groups and
talk to the groups about service on campus.

Excellent question and please share your compiled responses with the
list as I am interested in hearing more about what
other colleges do.

Thanks!

 Scott Tate

At Capital University, fall orientation includes a variety of Saturday
"Sidetrips" the weekend before school starts.  The
trips cover a variety of recreational activities.  For the first time
last fall we created a community service project
option, as a free alternative to other trips (which might cost $15-40
depending on the activity).  About 40 students
volunteered at Global Gallery (an affiliate of Ten Thousand Villages), a
nonprofit store in the Art Gallery district of
Columbus that sells international clothing, arts, crafts, gifts, coffee
and tea, etc.  All their merchandise is bought
under fair trade guidelines.  Some things get damaged in shipping, so
they had purchased quite a bit of unsalable goods.
Well, the volunteer coordinator designed a mosaic of the store's logo
and had our students use broken pieces of the crafts
to make it.   They now use it for promotional purposes.  Since we had a
larger group than we expected, they also helped out
with other things around!
d the store.  We split them into four groups and had them rotate to four
different stations.

This was a non-threatening, fun project for students.  It may not have
been a transformative experience for many of them,
though some did volunteer for other projects at the store.  I didn't try
to do any reflection with the students, though an
experienced facilitator could have done so.  Also, it really helped that
we planned the activities collaboratively with
Global Gallery, and that they provided a good site orientation.  The
staff also supervised the groups as they worked.

One more thing: many students took home leftover merchandise to decorate
their dorm rooms - it wasn't all in bad shape, but
it couldn't be sold.  So we hope that this created publicity for Global
Gallery in a number of ways.  We also bring them to
campus for an off site sale near the holidays.

I'll let you know when we finalize plans for this fall's orientation.
All I know is that it will include community service
- probably another nondirect project, or something like an environmental
cleanup - based on last year's success.

Robby Florstedt

The Community Service Office at Lehigh University has a three day
pre-orientation program where new students can come to campus early to
provide service to the community.  The program is organized for about 50

students max. with 10 upper-class student leaders that create the
service
and entertainment activities for the students.  The service activities
that
we have done include, Habitat for Humanity, a child care center, youth
summer camps, senior citizens, environmental, and special citizens.  The

most difficult one to run was the child care center because the amount
of
service that students could do was limited and so was the time that they

could volunteer at the agency due to the schedule of the children.  The
senior citizen program was also difficult because not a great deal of
students would sign up for that program.

I hope that this is some of the information that you are looking for.
If
you have any other questions, please feel free to give me a call.

Tammy

Sally - As part of our New Student Orientation, we plan a "Community
Connection" piece.  The focus is to find a way for our new students
to perform a service that would also bring them into contact with as
many of our community members as possible.  We have planted trees and
tulips (with the trees and tulips donated from local nurseries) very
successfully.  However, the community members still think its about
"free trees".  We have done landscaping projects around "Welcome to
Morris" billboards; we have built a fence and planted tulips in a
downtown pocket garden and we have constructed an entry garden to a
prairie restoration project.  This year we may be doing a
door-to-door collections of winter coats, hats, etc. for our local
Salvation Army and prairie seed collection.  Let me know if you need
more info.  carol
--


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sally R. Watkins
Student Life & Leadership
Service-Learning
Acting Program Advisor
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scottsdale Community College
9000 E. Chaparral Road
Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626
Phone (480) 423-6556
Fax (480) 423-6547
sally.watkins@sccmail.maricopa.edu