Stan State welcomed first-year students to campus with a two day and one-night orientation this past Monday. Since 2018, Stan State has become one of ten CSUs to host an overnight orientation for incoming first-year students.
The shift to an overnight New Student Orientation (NSO) was to give students a “comprehensive orientation program based on the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS), industry best practices, university requirements, and student needs,” explained Stephanie Hubbard, interim Director of Student Leadership and Development.
Students get to experience two days full of workshops, speeches, and fun activities giving students a chance to interact with others and become fully prepared for their first year at Stan State.
“The days are structured to meet the full range of first-year student needs. This includes time for students to build a sense of belonging through interaction with faculty, staff, and other first-year students; attend workshops on campus life and first-year success; receive GE and major advising, and register for classes,” said Hubbard.
Juan Ruiz-Olguin (senior, English) is glad that NSO is now a two-day event because students can be given information without feeling too “overwhelmed” as he did during his orientation.
NSO for transfer students remains one day, however, it is curated to fit the four learning outcomes of NSO, which are connections to the campus community, exposure to campus resources, identify general education requirements, and knowledge of how to use STAN planner said, Hubbard.
On the first day of orientation, students are randomly assigned a dorm giving students the opportunity to meet others in and outside their majors.
“They get a shared experience with everybody, because before, they’d get grouped up in their major and go on small tours, but now they get to live with other people that are not only not in their major but are maybe not living on campus,” said Angelica Maghinay (senior, English and Philosophy), an Office Assistant for housing, in regards to how students have been benefiting to staying at the dorms.
After a busy day, students get downtime with nightly activities such as a pool party and games.
“I remember my NSO we had to do an icebreaker and that was the only fun thing we did. They [incoming students] get to do more fun activities and interact more and make those connections,” said Ruiz.
Despite NSO being twice as long as the previous years, the price for the orientation fee remains the same at $75 for students, with Academic Affairs and Student Affairs covering the rest of the cost.
