MAYOWA AINA
The summer of 2013 I was an Orientation Leader for the University of Washington...
I contributed to the successful orientation of 7,500 incoming students and 2,500 parents and/or family members by individually leading groups of 20-50 people through a 2-day program, presenting information to groups as large as 350 people and as small as one person, and collaborating and coordinating with team members to execute a schedule set up by the Office of First Year Programs.
I can trace all of my involvement at the University of Washington back to a single moment during my freshman orientation. The last speaker of the day asked all of us brand new Huskies to raise our hands if we knew someone who really wanted to go to the UW but didn’t get in. As I raised my hand and thought about all of my friends from high school and in my community who had wanted to go to the UW but couldn’t, I realized that I had to make the most out of the opportunity I had been given. That single question sent me down a path of campus involvement that led me to the Black Student Union, Kappa Kappa Psi, and the symphonic band. At the end of my first year, I decided to apply to be an orientation leader, working for the very man who posed that perspective-altering question to me as an incoming student, helping other new students find their way around campus and begin to think about how they could use their talents to contribute to our community. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding programs that I have been apart of during my time at the UW and truly one of the best summers of my life.
Productive Relationships...
As an Orientation Leader, fostering and cultivating relationships was integral to the success of the program. The orientation program required that we showcase as many of the services that the University of Washington had to offer so that the incoming students could get a sense of what was available to them. I had to have a working understanding of services from offices of such and Undergraduate Academic Advising, Housing and Food Services, UW Study Abroad, UW Fiscal Services, UW Financial Aid Office, Office of Student Life, and Office of Health and Wellness such that I could explain them to new students and interested family members. In addition to being knowledgeable about several of the most well-known majors on our campus like Engineering, Biology, Psychology, English, and Business, as well as the lesser known majors such as Informatics, Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, and Comparative History of Ideas. However, it wasn’t enough to be knowledgeable regarding these services, I also had to know who to talk to about these services and who representatives were for so that I could point people in the right direction to have their questions answered. Even further, being that I would work with people from various offices and majors, it was important that I maintained a professional and positive relationship with each person that I encountered in order to provide a quality and successful program. What I appreciate the most about being an Orientation Leader was that I met a number of people over the course of the summer that I was able to establish relationships with. Most notably, after working as an Orientation Leader I was encouraged to apply to be a FIG Leader through the First Year Programs Office and I as a leader I was able to invite professionals from different offices, such as UAA and the Study Abroad Office, and friends that had gone on to be incredibly involved on campus to come speak to my FIG class which I think greatly enhanced their experience.
Facilitation...
The largest, and most important part of my job as an OL, I think, was facilitation. Every day I was tasked with facilitating conversation amongst either my group of students, group of parents, or through presentations of information regarding topics as methodical as registration resources and abstract as the "Husky Experience." Leading conversation for diverse and varied groups was incredibly difficult for me on one hand because I had never done anything like that so regularly before, but also because I am such an introvert. Each day brought new challenges including tough questions that students and family members would ask, technical problems with powerpoint presentations and videos, and navigating diverse perspectives and student abilities. Even just constantly being around people really took a toll on me. However, I think I have been made better for it. Speaking in front of groups and leading discussion was something that I was extremely uncomfortable with so I knew that I had to practice it and being an OL forced me to practice nearly every day. Now, I am much more comfortable facilitating discussions and asking open-ended questions that keeps conversation moving and I have been able to use the skills that I learned in other positions and organizations that I am involved in. I learned so much about how to manage my own emotional and mental ability and can recognize when I am burning out and need time to myself to recharge.