On the weekend of March 16th, the new Orientation Leadership team set out to New Brunswick, New Jersey to take on our first NODA. After hearing everything about NODA from Deanna, Victoria, and Stephanie, I was slightly anxious, but also very excited for what the weekend had to offer. There was a lot for us to do in preparation during the week beforehand; from figuring out what education sessions we would be attending, to designing a banner, as well as creating a role call song to introduce SVC at the conference.
We arrived in the campus life office bright and early, most of us still half asleep with some form of caffeine in arms reach. After getting everything loaded in the car and having everyone situated, we left around 10:30 to begin on our six-hour long journey. However, even though we left with plenty of time to get there, we made several stops along the way. But, we made it just in time to check in for the conference.
The first night there, we were immediately introduced to the other colleges in attendance by sitting with them at dinner. Following dinner, we performed our role call song that we came up with on the trip there; partly in a Hoss’ restaurant and partly by FaceTiming between the two cars. I personally thought that our role call was one of the few unique one’s out of all the colleges since we make it a point to create a new one each year, while other colleges may reuse part of a role call for the year before.
After everyone had done their role calls to represent their schools, we were thrown into Playfair. This is when the schools participated in various ice breakers to get to know each other better. The ice breakers were entertaining, however some of them we all thought were fairly odd. Even though it seemed like a short night we were all ready for bed until the day was over especially since we had to be up early the next day.
The following two days, Saturday and Sunday were filled with educational sessions that we broke off into and sat in on, diligently taking notes to bring new ideas and improvements to our orientation program here at SVC. Within just those two days, I feel that the Orientation leadership team has already become more like family to me. I can’t wait to help welcome the incoming freshman in the Fall of 2018. So, thanks for the memories NODA. Until next year! I can’t wait.
HCXO,
Casey