One week ago, about 645 first-years participated in Orientation Weekend at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Three full-days of name games, icebreakers, food trucks and other events that got the first-years excited for this new chapter in their lives. The weekend also included forgetting names, hot weather, late nights, early mornings and over 100 Orientation Leaders and Orientation Mentors taking the newest Statesmen and Herons under their wings for the long weekend. For those of you not on campus for Orientation Weekend, here’s a breakdown of what you missed!
Icebreakers
Whether you are in elementary school, high school, camp and even college, you will play all sorts of games to “break the ice” . . . and yes, they will be awkward!
One of the most popular name-games played during Orientation was a game where everyone went around in a circle and not only said their name to the group, but also repeated all of the names said before them. How embarrassing was it when you messed up someone’s name?!
Another popular game was the “Human Knot,” which is a much more awkward version of Twister, where everyone holds hands and turn until you are ultimately successful at untangling yourself without breaking hands. As awkward as the game was, first-years are still talking and laughing about it with the people they played with.Â
These games can be super uncomfortable at first, but are definitely memorable! The best part is everyone ends up uniting over group members with complicated or unpronounceable names, leaving the only option to quickly mumble “said name” and hoping that no one questions it. Â
Food, Food, and MORE Food
HWS deserves a medal for the food on campus during Orientation Weekend. Friday night started off on the right foot with local food trucks literally rolling onto campus! Different options were spread out by first-year residence halls, beside JPR, on “the Hill,” and next to the “Mini Quad.” Options ranged from grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese to fried dough and ice cream! Trekking up “the Hill” and enduring long lines brought the first-years together to sample what best food trucks the region had to offer.Â
The weekend’s food only got better with most meals being catered and served on the Quad. On the last day of Orientation, campus was lucky enough to have some local restaurants of Geneva come to the Quad and treat the students to some of their best dishes!  Mark’s Pizza and the root beer table were without a doubt Orientation favorites.
After three busy days of running around Geneva, watching the amazing Mosaic New York performances, laughing all night at the hilarious MC’s and great performances at the Variety Show, and working hard during the Day of Service, the first-years felt a lot like J Law by the end of each day.
Enjoying great food, playing games and learning about HWS ultimately sums up the activities the first-years and Orientation Staff participated in throughout the weekend. However, the amount of work that went into the fun weekend did not go unnoticed! As HWS’s newest class is settling into their newer but smaller homes, getting lost and navigating Saga, they are still talking about the weekend’s activities and the memories they made with their new friends.
As a first-year I would like to personally thank all of the Orientation Mentors, Orientation Leaders and the two amazing Orientation Coordinators, Hannah Connelly ’16 and Peter Budmen ’15, MAT ’16, for all the hard work they put in for a great weekend! A special “shout-out” and thank you also goes out to Megan Blanchfield ’19 and all of the other first-years for the article inspiration and shared stories from their first weekend on campus!