Summertime and student organizations

I love when my friends ask me, "so, what do you do all summer when the students are gone?"

Summer is a wierd time in OSIL for sure. We are just finishing up the past five weeks of the Orientation "process" because once those seniors walked across that stage, orientation has been our entire world here. All of the administrative staff and all of the support staff in OSIL play some kind of role in pulling off one of the biggest "events" that happen on our campus. This also includes our 31 OL's who we have spent a great deal of "quality time" with for sure!

On Monday night we will bid farewell to the orientation season and then move on to the rest of our summer. We'll be taking a lot of vacation days for sure, but that's mainly because the academic year doesn't provide a lot of time for vacation days to be used.

Other than vacation, summer provides some great time for us to evaluate the previous year and work on annual reports. I know, that sounds about as much fun as watching golf on tv... but it's a great way for us to organize our thinking about the year's past events and accomplishments. We know that some great things have happened this year and I personally look forward to the chance to sing the praises of the hardworking students and staff affiliated with our department.

We're also working on some cool new things for the fall. We already have an upgraded version of the Involvement Network and all of us will be learning about its new features and what that will offer us. (check it out.. it looks COOL). We're working on supporting a new program on campus called the Portfolio of Excellence where 100 freshmen will be selected to be matched with a mentor who will help the student plan their goals for their BSC life. We're also spending some time on a great new wiki site for student organizations that will bring you all of our policy info in an easy to use and easy to update format.

Beyond that, there's time to clean out files, actually take lunch breaks, and get re-energized after gaining some distance from the craziness of the academic year. We'll be around for sure this summer, so please contact us if you want to work on your fall events or if you just want to say hello. We also just bought a new webcam... so we can "meet" with you even if you can't come to campus! We're so techie..aren't we?

We'll be blogging it out all summer... so check back frequently!

Cindy

My Laptop Liberation

Hi, I'm Kayley Robsham and I am going to be a sophomore at Bridgewater State College this Fall.

This past year as a new student to Bridgewater State has been both fun and stressful. The stressful part of being a freshman was meeting new people, making friends, and getting involved. If I could re-do my freshman year I would have told myself to get out of my room and off of my laptop. For the first two months, I spent most of my time in my room with my roommates. I wish that I would have talked to my Resident Assistant more, or even talked to people in my hallway. I was interested in applying to be an Resident Assistant and an Orientation Leader for the next academic year, but I did not know anyone. Instead of sitting on my laptop, I could have been networking and meeting people to help me gain more knowledge about both of the positions. Although I made up for meeting new people and making connections my second semester, I wish I got a head start my first semester. I regret not getting involved and meeting new people. I hope my experience as a freshman encourages the incoming students to get out there and network to get involved on campus! This college experience only comes once in a lifetime. New students get involved as much as you can -remember to balance academics! Good luck new students!

Springfest!

Hi,I'm Katelyn, and I'm a freshman at Bridgewater State. I am part of Program Committee and Gamma Phi Beta. Every year, Program Committee sets up a whole week of Springfest events and a Carnival at the end of the week. This year's Springfest was a huge hit! Throughout the whole week there were novelty items that students could make and keep. Some of the novelty items were: sandart, photo puzzles and airbrush backpacks which were a huge hit. On the Thursday Seth Meyers, from Saturday Night Live came and performed and was hilarious. Everyone loved him. Gamma Phi Beta also participated in the Springfest extravaganza by hosting a Rock-a-Thon, where all the sisters continually rock on rocking chairs to help raise money for the Children's Physical Developmental Clinic that is run on campus. The Springfest Carnival sponsored by Program Commitee and the Student Government Association was a tremendous success. There were rides, a rock wall. For all of the students there was free popcorn, fried dough, and snowcones. In keeping with the Springfest theme there were plastic refillable waterbottles handed out that could be filled with lemonade and water and multiple refilling stations. Also, The Green River Ordinance came to perform, they were fantastic and everyone loved them. The warm weather made for a perfect day that went very smoothly, and from what I've heard this Springfest was the best Bridgewater has seen in a few years!

Peace and Love,
Katelyn =)