CMu First-Year Orientation: "Capture the MOment"

Carnegie Mellon University’s First-Year Orientation program eases incoming freshmen and transfer students through the transition into college by building an atmosphere that allows them to foster connections with other students and faculty members. Carnegie Mellon’s unique 9-day orientation program is comprised of approximately 200 academic, developmental, social, recreational and cultural events designed to instill incoming students with a sense of belonging within the CMU community.

As one of seven Head Orientation Counselors (HOCs), I worked under the direction of Dr. Anne Witchner, Director and Associate Dean of Student Affairs over the course of 8 months to plan and facilitate the Orientation Program for the Class of 2020+. We interviewed over 300 students in an intensive multistage process to select a staff of 140 student counselors. Three of the HOCs and I stayed in Pittsburgh over the summer to work full-time on all aspects of the planning. During the summer months, I worked directly with university professionals to conceive and coordinate 7-day counselor training to equip staff with knowledge of university resources and tools for meaningful engagement. The entire staff returned a week before Orientation to go through the training before welcoming 1500+ students to campus.

Theme

One of our first tasks as HOCs was selecting the theme for the 2016 Orientation week. We realized that the incoming students undoubtedly had lots of feelings about venturing from what they were familiar with into a brand new environment, but we wanted them to realize that Orientation was their introduction and first “snapshot” of the rest of their college career. With this sentiment in mind, we selected “Capture the Moment” as the theme, accompanied by a logo depicting a camera with a Scottie Dog, CMU’s unofficial mascot, in the lens. The theme was integrated into many aspects of our programming, and the logo was used for marketing materials, printed resources, t-shirts, training documents, signs, and novelty items. After evaluation of our implementation of the “Capture the Moment” theme into CMU’s 2016 Orientation program, we were awarded the Outstanding Use of a Theme award from the National Orientation Directors Association (NODA).

“The Big picture”

In 2011, it became a tradition to organize the members of the incoming class into a CMU-related formation and take a class photo before Playfair, the first full-class event of Orientation week. Keeping with our “Capture the Moment” theme, fellow HOC Josh Zak and I designed the 2016 big picture to depict a camera similar to our logo with “CMU” written in the lens. With the help of five other staff members, we marked off the shape on the University's main lawn ahead of time. When it was time to begin constructing the photo, approximately 300 staff members in colored shirts filled in to create the lens and “CMU” lettering, while the staff members with yellow shirts formed the flash. We then began pulling from the 1550 first-year students wearing black t-shirts to trace the outline of the camera, then used the rest of the class to fill out the shape. After getting everyone into the formation, Josh and I made adjustments based on the suggestions from our staff member and photographer who were stationed in a cherry picker. Once we were satisfied with the shape, we instructed the staff members wearing yellow shirts to hold up their cell phone lights to simulate a flash and took the photo. The 2016 big picture was a great way to “capture the moment” of the first time the Class of 2020+ was all together.