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Staff, faculty and students alike: It’s time to get ready for a week of faculty-themed chants, homemade signs and coloured T-shirts as incoming University of Calgary students become acquainted with their new home for the next four years.

Leading the charge for each faculty are a hardworking group of orientation leaders — upper-year students who have dedicated the final week of summer vacation toward helping new undergraduate students to find their footing on the UCalgary campus.

The orientation leader’s role includes answering questions, being supportive and serving as a guide, but their main objective is to bring the energy. Whether they’re shouting faculty chants at Tuesday’s Induction Ceremony Pep Rally, facilitating social icebreakers with the students, or making custom signs, it is their job to fill the moments in-between official events with positivity, good vibes and entertainment.   

The orientation leader program is a critical part of the University of Calgary’s transitional programming for new students. For the past 22 years, upper-year student volunteers have played a key role in helping new students become acquainted with the motions of campus life. In addition, being an orientation leader is also a chance for these students to remember what it was like to start post-secondary themselves.

• Read more about Fall Orientation events

Jessy Cheung, co-ordinator of orientation and first-year experience, and a former orientation leader describes it this way: “Being an orientation leader is about building new communities as well as revisiting old ones.” Upper-year students who volunteer get to relive their first week on campus, and for many, are offered the opportunity to pay forward the advice, comradery and friendship that was gifted to them when they arrived. 

For first-time orientation leader Maham Ashraf, paying her positive first-year experience forward is exactly the reason why she signed up. “I remember how anxious and uneasy I was starting at a new school with new people, and how the transition wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it would be.” This is a common sentiment among the 350 orientation leaders who will help to make the 2018 season a success.

Tanvi Shankar, another first-time orientation leader, explains that it was her orientation leader who was the first person to answer some of her questions about her program: “My orientation leader helped to alleviate my concerns by sharing his experiences and giving advice [about the program of study]. Just talking to him helped me through my first few days.”

For Louise Bwandinga, the decision to be an orientation leader was as much about giving back to students as it was about personal growth. “I decided to do this because I wanted to get out of my shell more, and because I know how hard it can be to adjust to a new environment,” she says.

Whether you enjoy Fall Orientation from inside your office, inside a classroom or answering questions about directions, academics and more, be sure to thank an orientation leader for the great work that they do.