"THISJUSTIN"

Ever since I came to Orientation as an incoming freshman, I dreamed of being an Orientation Leader.  I met so many new friends and my orientation leader was a wonderful role model and helped us feel a lot more comfortable with coming to a new home in Blacksburg.  I was also convinced at Orientation to attend Hokie Camp, which is an extended orientation at Smith Mountain Lake.  I loved every minute of it and new I wanted to be apart of New Student and Family Progams and help incoming students in whatever way I could.  

 

As soon as I got the opportunity, I applied to be a Hokie Camp Counselor when I was a freshman and was given the chance to be a Counselor the summer after my freshman year.  We had training every Wednesday from 5-8 and learned numerous amounts of leadership skills, learned about StrengthsQuest, and participated in a lot of different diversity activities.  When we got to camp, we had more training and were able to spend three days with other counselors and campers and help the students gain friendships and learn more about Virginia Tech.  Being a Hokie Camp reassured that I wanted to be an Orientation Leader, and I was able to apply at the beginning of sophomore year. 

 

When I got the email that I was choosen to be an Orientation Leader during Thanksgiving break, I cried tears of joy for over an hour.  I couldn't believe that I was actually selected and it was a dream come true.  Although I didn't know a lot of the other 23 Orientation Leaders (OL's), I was excited to meet everyone and knew that we would all become close.  The 24 of OL's soon were able to begin to bond and get to know each other during the semester long training for 3 hours each week.  We were all in the same position of being extremely excited, but knowing that we had a lot of preparation and obstacles to tackle before Orientation started.  Having training together allowed us to begin to lean on each other and ask for help when needed.  Towards the end of training, we were given our teams, which consisted of four OL's and one Orientation Assistant.  My Orientation Assistant, Paul, and the rest of my team made an absolutely perfect team.  We all were very laid back and had a sense of humor and became extremely close, especially when the summer started

 

When we came back in July for Orientation, we moved into Lee Hall and each had our own rooms, which were decorated and had special signs and treats waiting for us.  We had a week long of training and then three weeks of Orientation Sessions.  Soon after we got back to campus, we headed to an overnight team building camp.  This was one of the most fun experiences that I have had at Virginia Tech, and it allowed all of the Orientation Leaders and Assitants to get even closer and we were able to learn about our fears, hopes, and goals for orientation.  We also started to work on our outline that consisted of all of the different potential ice breakers we might do, conversation starters, notecards for the campus tour, etc.  This was a huge task to do and took a lot of personal time to plan and figure out what we thought was important to get out of Orientation. 

 

The night before we got our first students, I felt sick to my stomach and couldn't sleep.  I keep thinking of every potential thing that could go wrong and I was so nervous that my students would hate orientation.  We each got about 20-25 students a day, and my goal was to try to positvely affect all of them.  The other OL's really used this time to give positive encouragement and motivation to start the next day on a positive note. 

 

The hardest part of Orientation was the Community of Hokies part of the day.  This happened at night and was a serious time where we talked about the Principles of Community and did different activities to talk about diversity, discrimination, and the spirit of Ut Prosim.  Many students reacted differently to this time and it pushed my leadership abilities at some points when students reacted poorly.  However, I have never had a better learning experience and I left every night feeling enlightened, refreshed, joyful, and knew that I made a difference in so many people's lives.  

 

Although every day was exhausting and hard at times, I have never felt more inspired and ready for each day to get started.  Each night the students would write notecards giving feedback and thoughts on how each day went.  These notecards made me realize why I was doing this and I have never felt so proud.  My team would have reflection time after the day ended, and we would read our favorite card and all give reassurance that we were doing great work.  We were all able to learn about the ways in which we lead, the situations where it was hard to stay positive, and what we did to push through those positive times.  I never thought that I could learn so much from the 25 students that I had each day, and I owe so much to them.  My students, along with my fellow OL's and OA's, gave me the opportunity to realize the strengths in myself, learn how to have personal reflection time, and taught me how to accept feedback given.  

 

Overall, Orientation was an unbelievable and unexplainable experience.  I grew tremendously as a person and was able to see so much positive change in myself as a leader, a Hokie, and a friend, over the course of four weeks.  I was able to see how people see me as a leader and how to keep growing on those strengths.  I was also given feedback that I was able to work on over the course of my time as an Orientation Leader.  I will never forget the memories from Orientation and I owe the leader I am today to this experience.  

 

A sweet message sent to me after Orientation from a student: 

I'll never forget the first time I met Nicole Crouch! As my bubbly, outgoing Orientation Leader, she was the epitome of Hokie Pride. No one can make anyone feel quite as honored and pumped to go to such an amazing university like Nicole can! You're an inspiration to us all!