Every year, the Office of First-Year and Transfer Programs, in collaboration with departments and offices across the University, plans for the arrival of new, incoming students in August. Syracuse Welcome 2015, the new student orientation, will begin this year on Aug. 27.
Orientation Leaders during the 2014 Citrus in the City event
“With the assistance of our campus partners, we have developed a new, exciting schedule for Syracuse Welcome 2015,” says Carrie Grogan Abbott, director of First-Year and Transfer Programs. “Our goal is to immediately make our students feel welcome and a part of the Orange family. The schedule has been intentionally created to connect students to the University and our traditions, their peers, their schools and colleges and to the greater Syracuse community.”
Syracuse Welcome 2015 will now officially begin with the New Student Convocation on Thursday, Aug. 27. This hallmark event formally welcomes students and their families, and includes an address from the Chancellor and also a faculty keynote. On Friday, Aug. 28, students and families will transition to school- and college-focused gatherings, and students will attend Dean’s Welcome Meetings where they will learn about academic expectations and begin their academic advising sessions.
“We have a bit of a new welcome schedule this year with the New Student Convocation being the first big event that the new students participate in,” says Seth Quam, a junior in the Newhouse School and an orientation leader for Syracuse Welcome 2015. “I think this will help students feel connected to the school and to each other when they first arrive, and then we will have a barbeque afterwards to really establish those social connections with each other. I am super excited!”
Traditional program features such as the Citrus in the City event in downtown Syracuse, the Transfer and Commuter Student Social, Home to the Dome and Goon Squad move-in are included in the Syracuse Welcome 2015 schedule. The schedule will continue into the first few weeks of classes with students participating in the More to My Story program as part of residence hall floor meetings, as well as a new program addressing sexual violence prevention called Speak About It. A full schedule will be available in the early summer on the ReadySet website.
For more information, contact the Office of First-Year and Transfer Programs at newtosu@syr.edu.
