By Glen Ess (The Cascade) – Email
On Monday, January 4, and Tuesday, January 5, UFV hosted its New Student Orientation (NSO), with Monday’s session being designed specifically for students coming to UFV from abroad. This session was hosted by UFV International and its teams of global engagement volunteers (GEV) and global student associates (GSA).
During the course of the eight-hour orientation session, new international students got to know one another, and learned about the academic (and not-so-academic) opportunities available to them at UFV. To help foster a sense of competition and kinship, the students took part in activities including “The Amazing Race,” where they ran about campus attempting to complete tasks such as a scavenger hunt in the bookstore; a trip to the library; and going live on-air at CIVL to take part in a radio play called Attack of The Killer Mole Rats, as well as taking part in a lip-sync competition.
The next day saw the international students joined by the new domestic students, bringing the majority of students new to UFV this semester into contact with one another. This time they were helped by Student Life ambassadors, a fair amount of whom were also GEVs the day before. The NSO saw students listen to an aboriginal song of welcoming, a speech from UFV president Mark Evered, and SUS president Thomas Davies also helped welcome the fresh meat — I mean new students — to UFV. The bushy-tailed, wide-eyed newbies were taken on campus tours and given as much information as they could at the service fair before lunchtime.
After that the party dissipated, with students having the option to stay longer for other information sessions.
