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Mikey Lupton, an orientation leader at Syracuse University, joined OLs from other schools at a conference last year. After sharing about some of the events that SU Welcome programs offer for new students, other OLs asked how they could recreate it at their schools.

“I remember one school who came up to us, and they were like, ‘So can you explain this event to us so that we can figure out if we can do it at our school?’” Lupton said.

SU’s Welcome Week aims to introduce new students to campus with a range of activities and small groups. Student coordinators are responsible for planning pre-welcome programs like BIPOC Connections and ‘Cuse First and the Slice is Right game show.

The BIPOC Connections program, in its second year, allows students to meet peers in their community at SU. Students can speak with older BIPOC students, like Lupton, to get advice. Lupton said that, for example, a Black woman might need to find a place to get her braids tied near campus, and the BIPOC Connections OLs can point them in the right direction.

“Especially being at a predominantly white school, it’s a little harder sometimes to find someone who looks like you and is another person of color,” Lupton said. “That’s what the program focuses on – to introduce students of color to each other and give them a chance to hang out before.”

One of the most popular events for BIPOC students is the Syracuse Welcome Fête, which showcases BIPOC student organizations to new students. When Lupton was a freshman, there was no BIPOC welcome program, and since then, he’s already seen the program making “a world of difference.” The Welcome Fête was the springboard for the development of BIPOC Connections, he said.

“It’s just always been growing and getting better,” Lupton said. “The office has been really great with putting this on and making it bigger and better every year.”

‘Cuse First allows first-generation students to move in on the first day of Welcome Week and get familiar with the campus. Ashlyn Garcia is the student coordinator for the program, which also helps facilitate connections between first-generation students.

A major part of the program is discussing financial struggles and emphasizes that the program is free of cost to parents and students. Parents often come with lots of questions, so answering their questions eases worries.

“It really helps bridge the gap,” Garcia said. “We focus a lot on financial things, just any questions that they have, and it’s like a one-on-one experience, so there’s an OL for about 20 students.”

OLs also emphasize what the first-generation identity means, Garcia said, because it’s important to show first-generation students that they are overcoming more barriers than they may realize.

Like BIPOC Connections, the program also started recently, Garcia said. She’s gathered feedback to try to improve it in future years.

As part of both pre-welcome programs, Garcia and Lupton said honesty is key. They aim to have open conversations with their small groups, detailing SU’s history as a PWI and events like #NotAgainSU.

“(New students) just really appreciate the honesty and just being straight up with them instead of sugar-coating things,” Garcia said. “They really just want to hear the facts about college and then how to solve that.”

Ella Chan | Asst. Photo Editor

New students represent their hometowns at a Syracuse Welcome event. Orange is truly everywhere, but it dominates the East Coast.

Garcia pushes first-generation students to self-advocate and emphasizes those skills through ‘Cuse First. The International Student Welcome similarly emphasizes this skill because of how different academic systems are in the United States from other countries. The International Student Welcome OLs prepare students to be ready on the first day of classes, Juan Tavares, director of SU’s Center of International Services, said.

“Faculty members are very accessible here in the United States, which is not the case in many other countries, so we encourage international students to go to office hours and meet with their faculty and their TAs and ask questions,” Tavares said.

As pre-welcome programs transition into the general Welcome Week on Thursday, programming continues to include small groups. While they are different groups than pre-welcome, they continue to have options to join one of shared values.

While Lupton will continue to lead BIPOC student groups, Garcia chose to lead a group of LGBTQ+ students for Welcome Week. Students have the opportunity to opt into a specialized or a general group during Welcome Week, Lupton said. Some options include commuter students, students from New Jersey and sports fans, Lupton said.

Garcia is passionate about identity, and leading the LGBTQ+ group helps another generation of students with whom she shares something in common. It’s important to give students their first experience of community on campus, she said.

Garcia finds leading the specialized small groups empowering, but Lupton didn’t notice a difference in how he led the different groups, instead finding the difference in his interactions with students. He had difficult conversations in the BIPOC group he likely will not have in the general groups.

“(The BIPOC group) breaks that first set of awkwardness a little bit because we all have the same common thread, and that’s something we can always talk about,” Lupton said.

Senior Liam Biscari is an OL who focuses on the general small groups, which he enjoys because he gets to meet people from all over the world with different perspectives. Having come to SU after initially not considering it as an option, he felt nervous coming into freshman year. However, Welcome Week allowed him to meet some of his best friends, and now he wants to repay his experience forward.

OLs are in a unique position to bring together a group of people who may not have met otherwise, Biscari said. Even if some groups are not engaged with the OL, they may be making connections with each other.

“It’s just super rewarding, you can really see sometimes even if two students are leaving a small group early, they’re leaving together,” Biscari said. “Maybe they’re laughing because an OL was dancing or, you know, jumping around and screaming, but there’s definitely a bond there.”

Garcia encourages students to join small groups because she feels she could have made more friends that way her first year. She believes it would have made her feel even more welcomed on campus.

“The best feeling is when I’m going down campus a few months later and people still hang out, or people see me and (are) like, ‘you’re my orientation leader,’” Lupton said.

Published on August 21, 2024 at 11:07 pm

Contact Rosina: rlboehm@syr.edu