THE FRESHMEN Orientation Seminar (OrSem) finally pushed through on July 3 and 4, three weeks into the school year.
OrSem is an event ideally held before the start of the school year. This year’s OrSem adopted the theme “Established (Est.) 1859,” to acknowledge the sesquicentennial celebration.
Expectations
Since OrSem essentially introduces Ateneo culture, some freshmen feared the postponement would make the first few weeks in the Ateneo difficult. Freshman Betina Dominguez said she still didn’t know anybody during the first day of school.
Freshman Idonna Lacson agreed. “I didn’t know what to do on the first day, where the buildings were, and what the rules were.”
“I was disappointed because I was looking forward to it,” Dominguez said. “My older brother was an Atenean and he told me OrSem was effective and worthwhile.”
Freshman Edgar Magturo said, “I felt bad because OrSem [was] something I [looked] forward to in college.”
“This is like the preparation for us freshmen, having it postponed is like not having any introduction into college. It was really a culture shock.”
Some freshmen were also skeptical when they learned OrSem was pushing through after three weeks of classes.
“I was okay with it, the idea of having OrSem three weeks in after school started, but I just didn’t find OrSem that essential anymore though,” Lacson said.
Dominguez said, “It was a relief that OrSem will only be for two days because we were busy with school work, but I was still excited that it pushed through.”
Tired fun
Some freshmen, however, still considered their OrSem memorable.
“The whole experience was fun, helpful… I’m really glad I had [an] opportunity to know more about the orgs,” Dominguez said.
Justine Barredo (I BS Psy) said OrSem was fun but tiring. “When I entered [Covered Courts] I was surprised at how hyper the TnTs were, I didn’t expect it to be fun because I thought OrSem was formal.”
“I just wished that our school night coincided with the other schools. They just gave us sandwiches and drinks and postponed the event because of the rain,” Barredo added, after the School of Social Sciences Night was cancelled.
Lacson also enjoyed the OrSem experience, even though she had hoped for some changes. “I was expecting that they would change their program because the format of the tours would have been relevant before school starts but not three weeks [after].”
Still, OrSem volunteers were in agreement that OrSem this year still went well. “There may have been problems with the sudden down pour of rain but overall, it was pretty successful,” Raiza Encinas, TnT volunteer, said.
Lacelle Eya Castro, TnT volunteer, said this year’s Orsem was better than expected. “It still had the same vibe [like] last year. I think the plans and preparations of the OrSem really worked not only for the TnTs but most of all to the freshies.”
“It was more systematic this year,” said TnT Head Katlog Go.
Pushing through
OrSem Head Justin See said one of the changes that happened was the rescheduling of the volunteers’ training dates from June 10, 11 and 13 to June 21, 27 and 28.
This schedule initially posed a problem since classes already started and not all the volunteers were available for the training dates and even on the OrSem days itself.
The Bring Your Own Baunan (BYOB) Policy was also implemented this year in OrSem. OrSem Deputy Head Krizanne Ty said that original plan was to distribute the baunans on the first day of OrSem, but the volunteers were unable to clean them in time for distribution. “What we did was we went to all the Intact (Introduction to Ateneo Culture) classes and distributed the baunans then. We had the freshmen clean up their own baunans.”
A “No Baunan, No Food” rule was also implemented during OrSem.
Go added they also experienced difficulties with the baunans on the day itself. “Since the BYOB is new for OrSem, we did not anticipate… mix-ups and [that] some baunans would be missing,” Go said. “There was also a time constraint because it really takes a lot of time to fill all the baunans.”
Go said they also had problems with the campus tours on the first day of OrSem, as well as the rooms available for group dynamics. “There was a mix up on the first day…we weren’t able to dry run everything because it rained during the training day.”
Go added there was an overlapping of tours schedules because the different volunteer committees (TnT, Log, Tours, Ent), had their own schedule. “[We] changed and improved the tours, mass produced the copy, and distributed it the next day.”
Ty added, however, that this year they were more prepared for unforeseen events such as rain, “The contingencies for rain was one of the things that we really prepared for, whatever happens, the campus tours will still continue in the covered courts.”
School nights
The Course and Department talks for the blocks were incorporated into the School Nights to fit the revised two-day program. School Nights introduce course requirements and descriptions to the freshmen.
SOM 3rd Year Central Board Representative Maria Angela Delos Santos said school nights are avenues to welcome the students, “Aside from that, the students had a chance to get to know their schools, courses and blocks better.”
SOM Chair Daryll Santillan said the Sanggunian exerted great effort to make the event possible for the freshmen, “We want them to feel that this is a good place, there are a lot of opportunities and there is a big avenue for them to achieve what they want to do.”
“This event is meant to establish in them that the SOSE Sanggunian is there for them and that we are one big community,” SOSE Chair Lauren Santos said.
SOSS Chair Jonathan Dumrique said the school nights were intended to be an extended opportunity to welcome the freshmen. “This is our way of showing them that there is a Sanggunian and we have something to offer them.”
Improving to give better service
See said that after OrSem, he and his team received positive feedback from freshmen and volunteers. Their work, however, is still not finished.
“There [are] still a lot of improvements to be made; we are going to talk among the team, the volunteers and other offices so that we can improve OrSem next school year,” See said.Ty added that they will conduct evaluations to ensure a better OrSem next time.
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