Name: Oscar Lara
Class of 2012
Major: English, Biology minor
We all remember attending the Student Parent Orientation Program (SPOP) before our freshmen year. For some of us, this was our first experience at UCI. The idea of going to college in addition, being away from home can be overwhelming. Luckily, SPOP has extraordinary staffers to make SPOP run smoothly and leave an everlasting impression on what college will be like. Her Campus talked with one staffer, Oscar Lara, on his experiences as being a SPOP staffer.
Oscar begun his SPOP journey last winter, when he applied to be a staffer. He applied since he had a “really incredible SPOP experience” in addition; his staffers inspired him to be more involved on campus.
The interview process is like any other interview—application along with a group interview. However, the special aspect of the SPOP staffer interview includes interviewees bringing in something artistic that represents their personality. Oscar highlighted his English-major side by bringing in three different canvases that together made a painting. The panting included one of Oscar’s favorite quotes from Robert Frost’s, “The Road Not Taken.” The poem ends with the empowering lines, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
Well, Oscar’s road led him to a worthwhile experience of being a SPOP Staffer. We may think that SPOP only affects the freshmen, but it also affects the staffer just as much. “[SPOP has] definitely taught me to be more open-minded and diverse. I am proud to share my great experience with the freshmen,” Oscar said.
SPOP may look like all fun and games, but they are some challenges to being a staffer. Even though there is not a specific person or event that was especially challenging, Oscar had to face the overall challenge of catering to all of the different students and interacting with the different people. By saying that, it shows the difficulty that staffers have to make SPOP such a success. Each hall has approximately 40 people per a SPOP and that is 40 different minds and personalities. It is hard to accommodate to all of those different people and it is the staffer’s job to make the incoming freshmen feel comfortable.
Oscar has staffed for five SPOPS and that means that he has met over 200 students. Amazingly, Oscar still keeps in contact with them. When he sees them on campus, he’ll give them the friendly “hello.” One of his SPOPers joined his frat, Sigma Nu.
With the excitement of SPOP, I asked him what SPOP means to him. He gave me the simple answer of “growth.” “It’s kind cheesy, but I’ve grown as a person and see the freshmen grow.”
With that being said, Oscar, like other SPOP staffers, has helped the freshmen grow onto their transition from high school to college.