Usually when I think of my ideal summer, images of a nice, secluded cottage in the mountains far away from the rest of the world are brought to mind. There’s quiet, there’s peace, and maybe there’s even some resting going on. In other images, there are beaches, road trips, even lazy days spent reading good books.
At any rate, I generally don’t think of working for RPI in Troy as a piece of my ideal summer. But that is, in fact, what I spent my entire summer doing: working in the Office of the First Year Experience doing Student Orientation. And I must say that this past summer was probably one of the best ones that I’ve had in a long while.
However, Student Orientation isn’t for everyone—I happen to like RPI and working with people. I realize there are a good number of people on campus that don’t like one or the other. I definitely would not recommend even thinking about this job to them. For everyone else, it’s worth considering.
I won’t lie: Student Orientation is a lot of work and requires excessive levels of energy. These costs really are nothing compared to the rewards, especially if you are a people person. To start with, you get to work with some fairly amazing students and administrators. Beyond that, though, there are the incoming freshmen and transfer students themselves, along with their parents. While there are the requisite number of problems, it is a pleasant experience overall.
So basically, I’d like to encourage everyone who is interested in working with Student Orientation to check it out. It is pretty much a volunteer thing, but it’s well worth it.
And I’d also like to take a moment to congratulate Annie Virkus on doing such a good job as the new assistant dean of Student Orientation. She, along with everyone else that was involved with Orientation, never ceased to amaze me over the course of the summer.
