Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeFresh Start program in need of revision
September 10, 2007 —
What was supposed to be a chocolate drizzled prequel to the Freshman 15 with whipped cream and a cherry on top was ice cream soup. Sun, Splits and Student Life -- a program inside of Fresh Start '07 -- offered ice cream and some Student Life information at one station, bananas and more information at the next station, and so on. But as you can imagine, by the time the freshmen got to the last station -- spoons -- we could drink our dessert.
Despite the obvious meltdown, the entire Fresh Start program should consider Sun, Splits and Student Life a scoop of what the freshmen welcome program should look like -- information, short and to the point, but also divided up with something sweet like caramel and nuts.
The advice offered at Fresh Start will probably greatly enhance the freshman experience. The program consisted of two mornings and afternoons full of advice, and evenings full of fun. Many students had a hard time sitting for that long. Although college classes are similar, they are not all passive, not all listening. Students are also taking notes, participating in discussion, or working on a project. Fresh Start included a lot of passive listening.
Consequently, the people who needed to hear that coming to class was important left well before that point was made. The people who needed to hear that they should stay awake in class didn't hear it because they drifted off.
As part of the academic essentials, freshmen found their own way to a classroom for three different sessions -- which would have contributed to the variety idea, had the sessions been better organized. The idea was to familiarize new students with the campus while telling them how to be good college students. Mine, for instance, were all in the same building, which didn't help me learn how to get around much. And since different staff members taught what was supposed to be the same session differently, many found themselves listening to the same thing over and over. That's almost worse than seven hours of passive listening.
By its pieces, Fresh Start '07 was good. The performances were well done, the motivational speaker interesting, the information needed. But the pieces need a different arrangement to keep students engaged enough to actually be able to retain the information.
So the main ingredient to Sun, Splits and Student Life melted. They had a good idea to keep our attention. The ice cream soup has a simple fix for next year -- upside-down splits -- so the ice cream remains in the freezer until the end. It still tastes the same with the cherry on the bottom, right?