1. Jordan McWilliams
Orientation and Registration
Coordinator
First Year Experience & Family Programs
Longwood University
Sociology 492
May-July 2014
2. Why this position?
Former Peer Mentor (2012-2014)
◦ Summer Team (Orientation & Registration)
◦ Fall Team (New Lancer Days/Longwood Seminar)
Future Plans
◦ Seeking a career in university student affairs
◦ Graduate School/Graduate Assistantships
Giving Back
◦ First Year Experience & Family Programs
◦ Longwood University
3. Orientation & Registration
Coordinator Overview
Recruitment and Selection
◦ 2014 Peer Mentor Team (Summer/Fall)
Combined Team Training (Summer/Fall)
◦ Spring 2014 Semester
Summer Team
◦ Orientation and Registration
◦ Peer Mentor Training
Creation and Facilitation
◦ Summer Team Direct Supervisor
4. Summer Team 2014!
27 Peer Mentors
May 18th, 2014 – June 8th, 2014
◦ All housed on 2nd Floor, Wheeler Residence Hall
Training
◦ May 18th-May 27th
Orientation and Registration
◦ Transfer & Readmitted Student O&R
May 28th, 2014
◦ First Year Student O&R
May 30th, 31st, June 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th
15. The Orientation & Registration Placements Enacted to Do Outstanding!
Summer Orientation & Registration 2014
The TORPEDO is a corresponding document to the actual placement schedule that provides further
instruction about each task that you have been assigned. The TORPEDO is the first resource to answer
questions should you need further information about an assigned location or task.
Placement 1: Meet in Student Union Ballroom
Peer Mentors should arrive in the Ballroom at GO TIME: 6:25 am. You should be properly and neatly dressed,
have a backpack with needed materials, nametag, water bottle, snacks, and any other items you require. Cell phones
should be charged and on vibrate. FYE&FP Staff will provide any necessary updates for the session.
Placement 2: Complete Morning Assignments
Please complete any morning task you have been assigned in a timely fashion. Once set up is complete by
Aramark, you may get some food from the Continental Breakfast. Do not make a mess! Once your tasks are complete, you
should move to your next placement as quickly as possible. Should you see a student or guest arrive early, move to your
placements immediately.
Placement 3: Wynne Drive
Catch a ride with the shuttle driver. Stand at the corner of Wynne Drive and Main Street and direct traffic into the
parking lot. Answer questions, welcome families and be enthusiastic! Just before 9am, catch a ride back to the library to
make it to Jarman on time.
Placement 4: Wynne Parking Lot
Catch a ride with a shuttle driver. You will assist in directing traffic in the parking lots and making sure families are
aware of the shuttle service and where passengers are being picked up. Encourage students and guests to take the shuttle
buses versus walking because of the construction. Greet and welcome everyone. Catch a ride back with the shuttle driver
just before 9am to make it to Jarman on time.
Placement 5: Greeter @ Shuttle Drop
You will greet people on the ARC side of the Greenwood Library. When they depart the shuttle or walk down the
hill. Greet each group and welcome them to Longwood. Make sure guests are safely exiting the shuttle and entering the
building. Explain that check in is just ahead through the sliding doors and there is someone there to assist them.
Placement 6: Greeter – Brock Commons @ Library
You will greet people on the Brock Commons side of the Library – make yourself visible. Greet each group and
welcome them to Longwood. Explain that check in is just ahead through the sliding doors and there is someone there to
assist them. You may also need to assist groups looking for Lankford or Jarman. Make sure they have checked in first.
Placement 7: Greeter – Library Foyer
Greet groups as they enter. Explain that check in lines are just ahead and split by last name. After check in,
continental breakfast is available and they can also head to Lankford to “Take Care of Business”. You may also have to
direct those leaving check in to the right direction to get to Lankford and Jarman.
16.
17.
18. What Have I Gained?
Leadership
Experience
Personal Capital
Confidence
1.There were a lot of reasons why I wanted to hold this position. I have actually had my eye on it ever since I became a Peer Mentor back in 2012. I applied and was hired as soon as I was eligible to become a Peer Mentor in the fall of my sophomore year. I served as a Summer Team Peer Mentor for two years as well as a Fall Team Peer Mentor for two years. Summer Team Peer Mentors work specifically during Orientation and Registration over the summer and also work New Lancer Days and teach Longwood Seminar in the fall. Fall Team Peer Mentors only work NLD and LSEM.
2. Another reason I was interested in holding this position is because I am interested in a career in student affairs. I would like to work at a university one day and I hope to pursue a graduate degree in higher education. I thought that this position would be a great way for me to build meaningful connections in the field and would give me some great applicable experience.
3. I think the biggest reason I chose this position is because I wanted to give back to an office and a university that has changed my life. My time as a Peer Mentor was undoubtedly one of the most meaningful experiences I have ever had. I have learned so much about myself and those who I have worked with and I know that I am better for it. I have also made some lifelong friends through my employment and I wanted the opportunity to give the next group of Peer Mentors the same great experience and opportunity that I had.
Since I have had this position for almost a 9 months now, it would take entirely too long to explain every single part of what my job entails. I have narrowed it down to the most relevant to my summer internship experience.
The first and probably most important part of my job is the recruitment and selection of the Peer Mentor team. My fellow coordinator and I spent most of our first few months coming up with a marketing strategy to bring in the best group of applicants as we could. We held five interest meetings in November to give the potential applicants a rundown of both teams and the responsibilities of the Peer Mentors. The applications were due in the middle of January and once we had them all, Shawn, the rest of the First Year staff, and I sat down and went through them all. The application process is two parts; the first is the application, the second is a group interview. Shawn and I were responsible for creating four activities for the group interviews.
Once we have hired the Peer Mentor team, we hold three training sessions during the spring semester. Each training is designed to go into detail about the position. Because these trainings are combined (fall and summer) we focused on New Lancer Days and Longwood Seminar. The summer team has their own training before Orientation and Registration.
The largest part of my position as O&R Coordinator is of course the supervision of the Summer Team. I was tasked with creating the whole training program and I worked on the coordination and planning of the orientation schedule for the students and their guests.
Summer team consisted of 27 Peer Mentors this year. These Peer Mentors make up the other half of the Fall Team and will also work NLD and LSEM. They moved into Wheeler Residence Hall on May 18th to begin their training. They have 7 days of training which covers everything they need to know for O&R. They had full days of training from around 9 am to 8 pm each night and had the weekend off. The days consisted of sessions from outside presenters from different campus offices and internal sessions from our office staff. Each session was specifically selected by me to make sure the Peer Mentors were equipped with all the information they needed to give the students and their guests the best experience possible. Some examples of sessions were;
-Professionalism and presentation of self, Diversity and Inclusion, Disability Resources, and many more.
The first orientation session was May 28th. This was the transfer and readmitted student day. That was followed by 6 first year student day. Each first year student day hosted around 200 students. The day runs for the Peer Mentors from 6:30 am to around 7:00 pm. They are tasked with working directly with the students and their families throughout the day, while I and the rest of the staff made sure that everything was running smoothly. I helped answer questions of families and students and was the main point of contact for the Peer Mentors if they had any problems.
As I mentioned briefly, it was my job to make sure the PMs were as prepared as possible for anything that may come their way. Aside from that, I had a few other goals.
The Peer Mentors work so closely together and even live together over the summer. I think it is imperative that they are a good, cohesive unit. Of course they aren’t all always going to get along, but I wanted to provide a training program that would not really feel like work. I’ve been a Summer Team Peer Mentor twice and honestly, the training days can get pretty boring. I wanted to add some fun activities to break up the monotony. I will talk about a few of those in later slides.
I also wanted to make this a meaningful experience for the Peer Mentors. Summer Team was one of the best experiences of my life and I wanted to do all I could to make sure these Peer Mentors had a life changing experience as well. Both summers I worked are summers I will never forget because of the lessons I’ve learned and the friends I’ve made.
The last and most important part of Summer Team is that it’s supposed to be fun, both for the Peer Mentors and for me. To be completely honest, going through the whole training and orientation days made me miss being a Peer Mentor more than I ever thought I would.
Each year there is a theme for the training and the three weeks over the summer. The them is usually something that is fun and can be incorporated throughout everything the Peer Mentors do. For my theme, I chose a cinema theme. Like I mentioned before, I wanted training to be meaningful and I wanted to put a fun spin on it.
I have always seen the Peer Mentor role as a bit of a performance. We always talk about how important it is to always be “on” for the students and families. No matter what is going on in the “back stage” you still have to perform in front of the camera (the guests and students). I thought that a great way to show this would be to use a cinema theme (because I love movies and all things cinema) and what a better way to provide a visual representation then to use this quote from Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It to set the whole stage for training.
On the first night of training, I showed the Peer Mentors the “Seven Ages of Man” speech that this quote is from and we discussed their initial thoughts about how it relates to their role as Peer Mentor. After we discussed, I had the Peer Mentors begin to think about what their own personal Peer Mentor movie would be about. I gave them a handout that asked them to title their personal movie and gave them a few questions to provide some background on their film. After we took some time to write about our movie, we all shared with the group. I wanted the Peer Mentors to talk about why they wanted this position and what they hoped to accomplish from it. I also had them share some basic information about themselves so we could begin to get to know the protagonists in each others’ movies.
So, that leads right into my theme. Welcome to “Peer Mentor Cinemas!”
Here are two pages from the training schedule. You can see that the days are pretty packed with important sessions and information. These are the first two pages of the first two days days of training.
Along with presentations from different offices, there was a daily reflection at the end of the day. Each activity was based on the central idea of a performance. The reflections were based off of The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, The Looking Glass Self, and a few others. Each reflection was meant to be a meaningful activity for the Peer Mentors and would hopefully allow them to see the world a little differently.
For each day of training, I wanted to give the Peer Mentors some fun and meaningful activities that incorporated the cinema theme. Here are just a few.
“The Director’s Chair” is the daily morning activity for the PMs. Each of the 7 days of training was matched with one of the 7 ages from the Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It. I would play a movie clip from a popular movie that had to do with each Age. Then, we would discuss how each Age related to being a PM and how the clip related the job as well. Here you can see the first and the last installment of “The Director’s Chair.” Once we discussed for a few minutes, the Peer Mentors would get ten minutes free write and answer the questions posed on their handouts. We would not discuss these because I felt that they would be more inclined to be honest and reflective if they knew they would be the only ones to read it.
Curtain Call is a daily activity in which the Peer Mentors got to do a little bit on improvisation and acting. Before the team arrived, each PM was assigned one campus office. They were to create a “cheat sheet” for that office and hand it in. The sheets included information about the office staff, the office’s purpose, and how the office can benefit families, guests, and students. Here is an example cheat sheet.
For the activity, the PMs were broken into teams of 5 or 6 and each day, each team was assigned one campus office, based on the “cheat sheets.” They were given ten minutes to come up with a skit demonstrating that offices use. This was a good way for the PMs to learn about the offices without having to just sit there and talk about each one and it was something fun they could be creative with at the end of the day.
After each presentation, we would discuss in more detail each office and I would answer any questions I could. The PMs did a wonderful job with this activity. I was a little nervous, to be honest, because I did give them a lot of freedom with this assignment.
For this activity, the PMs got to actually make their own movie. They were split up into four teams and were each assigned one area of Farmville. The premise of the movie was that a student and their family approach a Peer Mentor and want to know what there is to do around the town of Farmville. The Peer Mentors then were to highlight one of these popular locations. The PMs had two hours to make a movie however they wanted.
I thought that this would be a fun activity because it tied in the Cinema theme and would help the PMs learn a little more about their community. They seemed to really enjoy this activity and they did a fantastic job highlighting all of the points I wanted them to hit.
This was one of my favorite activities that we did for training. Each year, at the end of training, the PMs have some sort of graduation ceremony. This is the last night of training and it symbolizes their completion of training and their readiness to complete Orientation!
This year, I hosted the First Annual Peer Mentor Academy Award show for graduation. I had the PMs dress in formal attire and reserved Jarman Auditorium for the ceremony. Once the PMs arrived, we played a slideshow of all of the pictures that we had taken of them throughout training. I thought this would be a nice way for them to see the culmination of their hard work and share some laughs along the way.
After the slideshow, the professional staff and I spoke about how impressed we were with their progress and thanked them all for their hard work. Each PM was presented with a miniature “Oscar” trophy with their name on it as well. The last part of the award show was the award for best picture. We edited and showed all four movies that the PMs had made and decided a winner. The winning team each received a certificate with their team name on it and all of their names. You can see it in the pictures.
Once we had finished the award show, we walked the PMs to Blackwell Fountain where they were presented with all of their O&R materials. They received their Peer Mentor Backpacks, their shirts, nametags, and a few gifts that we had made for them. To end the day, we took them all to Charley’s Waterfront Café for dinner that we arranged for them.
The Peer Mentors really seemed to enjoy the whole ceremony and I really hope that they understand just how thankful we are to have them. We ask so much of them and I think this was a great way to wrap up training and show our appreciation for all that they do.
There is no more training once the O&R sessions start and I want to take a little time to explain what all goes into the O&R day and what work I was responsible for in preparation for the sessions.
Each day of O&R is scheduled minute by minute for the Peer Mentors. This is a tool that we call a TORPEDO. Or “The Orientation and Registration Placement Enacted to Do Outstanding.” This is a placement breakdown of every single thing the Peer Mentors will do throughout the day. This is the first page and you can see placements 1-7. There are 75 overall placements. I was responsible for putting this document together and editing it from past years. This is a very helpful tool for the Peer Mentors to have when they are working to understand their actual placement schedules and daily assignments.
This is what an actual placement schedule looks like. Each Peer Mentor has specific duties for every moment of every day. I was responsible for putting this document together and making sure every placement was filled by at least one Peer Mentor. The numbers of the placements on this document correspond with the placement numbers on the TORPEDO.
I have to admit, this was pretty difficult at first. The first placement schedule I made for transfer and readmitted student day was full of errors. Of course we fixed all of the errors before the actual day, but there was certainly a learning curve for when I made the next placement schedules. In total, I made four different placement schedules. This is because the Peer Mentors work on a two day cycle. Every other O&R they will have new placements. This gives them an opportunity to try some new positions and gain some different skills.
The last big project for Orientation are the schedules. You can see an example of the New Student schedule from this year. I worked very closely with the Director of our office to make sure that all of the schedules were accurate and easy enough for the students to understand. Because we hold a program for the students and one for the guests, there are two separate schedules they receive.
Overall, this was a fantastic experience. I have learned so much that it would take me years to explain everything, but I have been able to sum up my experience in a few words.
Leadership:
This was the first time that I really ever had to supervise a group of my peers. I have taught Longwood Seminar for two years, but that was more of a “teacher-student” relationship. With this role as the direct supervisor of the Peer Mentors, I had to really become comfortable with having a more authoritarian role. I believe that I was successful in this role because I had a good relationship with my Peer Mentors. They were comfortable enough with me to come to me with problems, but they were also very respectful to me when I was speaking and took what I said seriously. I was worried that it would be strange interacting with certain Peer Mentors because a few of them had worked with me as a Peer Mentor for a few years and many of them I knew personally.
Experience:
This position has taught me so many things, but the experiences I have had with this position are some that will stay with me. I have been able to work directly with a wonderful group of students and seeing their growth through the process was incredibly rewarding. I was able to have a behind the scenes look at what it’s like working in student affairs and seeing the other side of a job that I loved so much was eye opening to say the least. I worked long hours with strict deadlines and because our office is so small (in size of staff), I was able to work very closely with my superiors. All of these are examples of skills that I will be able to take and build upon in my future.
Personal Capital:
I believe that all of the skills I have gained and the work that I have done will make me competitive in the graduate school application process and eventually in the professional world. I have been lucky enough to work with many different Longwood professionals and I have had to complete almost every type of task that could be imagined in our office. These range from creating and facilitating a full training program, to coordinating and collaborating with new and different professionals, to planning large-scale events such as an Orientation and Registration. I feel that all of these skills are very transferrable to almost any profession.
Confidence:
The most important lesson that I learned through this position and specifically this summer, is that I have the ability to work in this field. I would not say that I was not confident in my abilities to successfully carry out all of my responsibilities, but now that I have been able to look back and reflect on the whole process, I can say that it was a success. I made some great friends along the way and I truly believe that the Peer Mentors had a great experience. I can confidently say that I accomplished my goal of providing them with a memorable and possibly life changing experience, just like the one I had during my time as a Peer Mentor.
I cannot say enough about how proud I am of these 27 students. They worked unbelievably hard to make this year’s Orientation and Registration season a huge success and as I’ve told them a countless times; none of it would be possible with each and every one of them. I will remember this team for the rest of my life and I hope they do as well.
