The Things You Learn In College…Just Not In the Classrooms

Hello Future Wildcats! Move-in is just around the corner, so here are some things that you can look forward to learning outside of the classroom! 

New additions to the food groups: Top Ramen, Chips, Ben & Jerry's, Candy, and Oreos.

Duct tape fixes everything!

Going to the mailbox was never an ego-booster (or ego-breaker) before.

Sleep becomes more important.

You begin to nap again.

E-mail becomes your second language.

You never realized so many people are smarter than you. 



You never realized so many people are dumber than you.

Bum rides, money, notes and snacks as much as you can get them.

Don't burn bridges, especially if they're good at math

Dry Ramen noodles never constituted as a meal before

Care packages rank up there with birthdays.

Printers only break down when you desperately need them. 



Even though the beds are long, they are also extra narrow.

You never thought you would share so much about yourself with people you have known for such a short time.

Disney movies are more than just classics. 



Find one thing you like in the dining hall and go with it.

Cereal makes a meal any time of day.

ATMs are the devil's advocate.

Ordering food at 1 AM is a common occurrence.

TV becomes a bigger time sucker than ever before.

Keys have never been so important, yet you seem to lose them more than ever before. 



You meet the type of people you only thought existed in the movies. 



You learn to sleep with light, noise, extreme temperatures, and roommates snoring.

You become a juggler with the balance between school, friends, girls, activities, work, parties.

You live for Mac & Cheese day at the dining hall

You begin to realize that college is about the ideal lifestyle, except for those pesky classes. 



You get good at rationalizing on whether to do homework or not. Procrastination becomes an art.

Jeans may be worn as many times as the wearer desires. 



The only reason you ever dress up is when everything else is dirty.

Classes: the later the better.

The longer you're there, the less you talk about home.

Boys will dance in college. 



You are NEVER alone.

It's amazing how late you can stay up doing absolutely nothing, yet falling asleep in class or in the library takes an average of two seconds.

People magazine is your deep philosophical reading material.

All you have to do to make new friends is have mom send some cookies.

Dishes aren't dirty enough to wash until they have bugs and / or mold in them. 



You get along so much better with your family now that you never see any of them. 



Getting involved with school activities is the greatest way to get connected.

If one person is sick where you live [dorms, wing, etc] you will be within a week, as will everyone else.

Christmas lights are accepted year round.

Your apron’s dirty? Wear it backwards.

Tide-to-go is your new BFF.

Oxy clean…meet chef whites.

The longer the recipe the more pages it takes up in your paper.

10 minutes is more than enough time to get ready for your class.

A 10 minute break is plenty of time for a nap.

A 6 minute walk across campus feels like hours.

You don't speak to your friends during midterm and final weeks if you want them to stay friends.

Your shower doubles as a dishwasher.

Netflix becomes a sport.

Your life will never be the same again.

And we are back!

Wow has it been a busy past two weeks! We have completed 3 Orientation sessions which means half of our sessions are completed! Although it has been busy we have had a great time! All of us had a blast getting to know each everyone of you and showing you a glimpse of campus life!


Today is our first Monday back in the office since the beginning of the Orientation season and we are all bored! Today will be filled with a lot of jam sessions, meetings and cleaning. We have 3 weeks or so to prepare for the next round of sessions in late July then before we know it school will be here!


Since the 4th of July is in a few days we are all wishing that you have a fantastic Holiday but also stay safe so we can see you on August 31st!


-Peace, Love, JWU




--Sam

Morning After!

Well that was a rush of 2 days! We had a blast hanging out with you all and hope you too had a grand ole time with us! We would really love to hear what everyone's favorite part of Orientation was, so please take a few minutes and leave us a comment or post on our Facebook wall! As we find and gather more pictures they will be loaded on our Facebook page! Be sure to like us and say heyy!!


If you have any thoughts, questions or just want to say hi, you know where to find us! We are on campus all summer!!


Once again here is our facebook link! https://www.facebook.com/JwuDenverSummerOrientation2012

-Peace, Love and JWU--Sam

It has arrived!!

Hey all!


Today is the day! ORIENTATION IS HERE!!!
We are super excited to see all of your faces so bright and early and can not wait to spend the next 48-ish hours with you!!


If you need anything while you are here please feel free to let any of us know! 
I have to make this quick so I can get back to work but I will post some pictures and highlights from today later tonight!!


Finally we ask that you all drink a ton of water with the hot weather and high altitude to make sure you can enjoy your Orientation experience to it's fullest!


Until then,


Peace, Love & JWU!!


-SAM

Facebook!

Hey all!

Just a quick little note! We have a new facebook page!! Make sure you like us and let us know if you have any thoughts or questions!

https://www.facebook.com/JwuDenverSummerOrientation2012

-Sam

Senior Staff!

Here is the Team! These are the people that have been working countless hours to prepare for your arrival! Now that you know who our "student" staff is let me introduce you to our Senior Staff!


    First we have Charli who is our WONDERFUL Graduate Intern from Boston College. She is awesome, always full of energy and is really good at making us (student's) look at things differently. We are super glad that she is here and can not wait for you all to meet her!


    O'Malley. His real name is John but most of the people around here call him O'Malley. During the school year he is a Resident Director, but during the summer we are very fortunate to have him apart of our Orientation Senior Staff. If you are ever looking for a good laugh or some solid advice he is the go to man!


    Our Glue. Jen is officially the Coordinator of Student Affairs, but we like to call her the glue. She has worked really hard to keep everything on track even though we have been going through a hard transition. She is very smart and makes everyone laugh! We are very lucky to have her on our team to help keep the peace and hold all of us together and on track!! (hence the glue).


    Finally the last but certainly no the least member of our team is Brian. Brian's official title is Director of Orientation and First Year Initiatives but really he will be our fearless leader! Brian is new to the team like most of us and we are all really excited for him to be here...even though he is not in Denver yet (he is moving from Washington state)! 


    Today was one of our last days to "get work done", and did we ever. Personally I can say that I stuffed every single one or your name tags (even though I had to redo them all because I had originally done them upside down....), finished a few sessions, finished a publication for you all and took a few pictures. We got a lot done today! The finish line is near and after our haul today we are even more prepared for that finish line.
    Make sure you catch tomorrow's blog post! It will have a lot of Orientation Session 1 related information like what to bring, when to check in and all that fun stuff. 


Until then amigo's!


-Sam

Meet Joey!!

Hey all!

Here is the last member of the Orientation Team (well besides the senior staff).

Countdown is to 5 days!

Meet Joey


Position: Orientation Leader
Major: Culinary Nutrition
Year: 3rd year
Hometown: Fullerton, CA
Favorite Color: Neon Green
Favorite Orientation Memory: Meeting my Orientation Leader for the first time and getting connected.
Favorite JWU Memory: Cooking and serving for the  Police Department for my Leadership program with my  Leadership and Service WIGIS  group. 
Hobbies: volunteering, cooking, freestyle dancing and running. 


Now that you know the team we will get back to business as usual on here! In the next few days we will help you make sure you are all prepared for your Summer Orientation Expereince! As always feel free to comment with any questions and join our JWU Denver Orientation 2012 Facebok group! There you can find more about the Orientation Team, meet the OL's and ask even more questions because we know you have questions for us!


-Sam

Meet Emily and Sam!

Hey Ya'll!
I hope that you are all super duper freaking excited for Orientation because the first session begins in less than a week!! Since we did not get around to blogging because we were so busy today you will be introduced to two members of our Summer Orientation Team. 


Emily Lanoce

Position:  Family Orientation Leader
Major: Culinary Nutrition
Year: Third Year
Hometown: Puyallup, WA (pronounced Pew-all-up)
Favorite Color: Turquoise
Favorite Animal: Elephant
Favorite thing to do in Denver: Find hole in the wall restaurants!
Favorite Orientation Memory: Playing Elfs, Wizards and Giants
Favorite JWU Memory: My 1st Late Night Breakfast
Favorite thing about JWU: EVERYTHING!!


Sam Klatt
Position: Orientation Leader
Major: Marketing
Year: 3rd year
Hometown:  Sauk Rapids, Minnesota
Favorite Color: Teal, Grapefruit and Leopard print
Favorite Animal: Dog
Favorite thing to do in Denver: Find new restaurants and go to all the sporting events!
Favorite Orientation Memory:  Seeing the campus for the first time ever!
Favorite JWU Memory: Cheering at all the home sporting events no matter if there were 3 of 50 of us there. The games are all really fun.
Favorite thing about JWU: Getting connected with the faculty, small classes and pretty much everything there is to love about JWU!




We have been working super hard this week to make sure everything is ready for you all! Today we are working on some videos to show you all along with building some of the sessions and working on the door decorations for your room that you will be staying in while attending Orientation!


Have a fantastic day!!


-Sam

Meet Johnny!!

Hay all.
9 days until our opening session of the first Orientation for the summer. We are so pumped up for you all to get here!! 


Johnny Lindstrom



Position: Orientation Leader
Major: Culinary Arts with Nutrition Intent
Year: 2nd/3rd year
Home Town: Tempe, AZ
Favorite Color: Baby Blue
Favorite Animal: Dolphin and Dog
Favorite thing to do in Denver: Walk around downtown and 16th Street Mall and see what fun things are happening!
What is your favorite Orientation memory: I enjoyed the ice breakers and energizers along with meeting a lot of cool new people!
My favorite thing about JWU: Late Night Breakfast!!!

Meet Taja

Hey all!
Here is another member of our fabulous Summer Orientation Team!


Taja Coleman


Position: Family Orientation Leader
Major: Sports, Entertainment and Event Management (SEE) 
Year: Class of 2013
Home Town: San Antonio, TX
Favorite Color: Pink & Green
Favorite Animal: Turtles!!!
Favorite thing to do in Denver: Line dance at the Grizzly Rose
What are you most looking forward to this summer with Orientation: Meeting all the new students and helping them connect.








Orientation Countdown: 10 days!!!!

Meet Katie!

The first session of orientation is only 11 days away! To get you all as excited as we are, we thought we would let you know who our team is along with who we are. For the next few days we will be introducing and featuring a member of our 2012 Summer Orientation Team! So here we go!

Katie Clark!

Position: Orientation Leader

Major: Hotel & Lodging Management

Year: Senior!!

Home Town: Neligh, Nebraska 

Favorite Animal: Horse

Favorite thing to do in Denver: Go to bakeries and ice cream places

Best JWU Memory: Late Night Breakfast!!

Favorite Orientation Memory: Oh goodness, probably the campus activities showcases.

Favorite thing about JWU: The relationships you form with friends, faculty and staff.

Pearl and the Plunger

Hey all!


Sam here! We have a lot to catch up on since the last post that mi amigo Johnny did. I realize that the title is a little "weird" per say but I promise it makes sense later!


Training. Today was a blast. We created our team cheer so get excited for that. It is pretty freakin awesome if I might say! Next we had a session with Brennan Meadows who is the Director of Student Activities.  This session was really fun for us since we got to hang out with Brennan and chat about the fun things that there are to do on campus (There is sooooo SO MUCH!!)  Anyways one tool that might be useful for you all is the Involvement Network. The IN (Ironic that the acronym is IN for involvement network) is a place where you can find information about and join the organizations we have on campus.  So make yourself a profile, find what organizations are a good fit to you and get more information on them! Its really easy, trust me! 
After our session with Brennan we met with Steven who is the counselor on campus. He is soo easy to talk to and is really brilliant. He is a great resource for all students even if there is no apparent "struggle" in their life. 


Our next session was with Campus Safety. We have some pretty awesome officers here! I mean all we did during our session was laugh and joke around. There are some pretty cool things that you all should know about Campus Safety. 

1. They are really fun.
1. Even though they are all super nice and can joke around with students it is important to remember that they do have a job to do.
2. Safe Walk
1. If you would feel more comfortable being accompanied while walking anywhere on campus give them a jingle and they can do that!
3. Crime Prevention Series
1. Free Food!!
2. Hanging out with Campus Safety 
3. Learning how to protect yourself from crime.
4. 303-256-9500
1. The Campus Safety Phone Number 
2. PUT IT IN YOUR PHONE 
5. They really are there if you need anything
1. They may not plunge your toilet for you but they will bring you the plunger!
6. Pearl
1. They drive a white Prius (her name is Pearl) so be sure to wave to them if you see them driving Pearl.
2. Sometimes they have to dive after people that drive on our sidewalks (I can't explain that one...) and even though they try they can not "chase" after the people because they drive a Prius.....

When all is said and done we have awesome Campus Safety!!! So if you are ever in need of anything do not be afraid to ask them for help! They will generally say yes with a bright smile! 

Our day concluded with our first look at Orientation!

We started building many of the sessions and thinking about each groups themes! If you think you have a brilliant idea please leave a comment on here!

Don't forget the FIRST Summer Orientation begins Monday June 18th!! To register click on this link and fill out the information! http://www.jwu.edu/EventMicrosite.aspx?pageid=60439

Also always please let us know if you have any questions in the comment section!
Tomorrow we begin introducing the Orientation Team so GET EXCITED!!!!

Peace, Love and JWU,

Sam

No Day But Today!!

Training Day 4
So today is Friday and we had a short day today!! We started the day bright and early at 8:30 am (for summer that is early lol) we decided to get us to wake up a little we needed to do an energizer!! We played bang bang your dead and a super model game!

Then we had the privilege to have an informative session with the Director the Center for Academic Support (CAS) Kecia Leland. She explained to us all the different tools that her department offers to make students JWU experience as easy as possible such as: free tutoring, writing center, academic counseling, and much more! She then wanted us to make sure that all students and their families feel as comfortable as possible during orientation and had us learn all the easiest access points to all the buildings on campus.  

Next we learned a little bit about some communication skills and how important it is to know that even though we may understand and perceive something one way that new students as yourselves may not perceive it the same way. This is important for us as orientation leaders to make sure that all students truly understand the material that we are giving them. SO DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS!!!!

See you all soon!

-Johnny

Great Expectations

Day 3.

The first week of training is almost over and have we learned a lot! The biggest take away from today was expectations. The Orientation Leaders (OL's) and the Senior Staff (our supervisors) made two lists. One was what each group expected of themselves and the other is what they expect from the other group. These lists will help make the summer run smoothly and keep everyone on the same page. Expectations.

New students come into college with a vision in mind of what they think it will be. They have expectations. One way to help mold these expectations is by attending Summer Orientation. Seeing the school and meeting the staff can help set attainable and realistic expectations and help you the student get even more pumped up about going to school here.

When I first was accepted to JWU I had never been to the campus or really knew anything about the campus. My expectations were pretty wild and crazy. My first time going to campus and learning anything about the campus was summer orientation. My mom and I flew to Denver a few days early to get to know the area and see the campus and was I excited! Seeing how beautiful the structures were and how friendly everyone was really got me excited about the experience I was about to have. Seeing the school really set my expectations high for the year and set them straight so I was not to be let down.

Our job as an OL is to make sure you get an accurate perception of the school and get you excited about your upcoming experiences a JWU.  Even though the first orientation session is coming up soon (so stoked) we want to make sure you have all your questions answered to make sure you are all prepared. So feel free to comment on any of these posts with any questions so we can help you out and give you a shout out here on the blog.

Happy trails and until next time all,

-Sam

Red Rocks.

Training Day 2.
We just completed our day and and boy am I tired! Our day began with meeting the new director and more team bonding (clearly our favorite thing ever!!). Once we were all connected as a team we learned some skills that we will need for the orientations (like printing ID's and working with your families.).




Summer O/L Team!!



The second part of our day was spent over lunch in Golden, Colorado and then hiking at Red Rocks. From campus it takes around 15 minutes or so to get to Golden and did we have a blast belting out every song that was played. A team that sings together stays together! :) At Red Rocks we looked around, hiked up the stairs and took a bunch of pictures. Once we were all tuckered out from climbing all 192 stairs we dined on some fro yo (frozen yogurt), chatted and headed back to campus.

Today's training reminded me of all the things there are to do around the Denver metro area!



Red Rocks.



Red Rocks is an amphitheater with amazing views, and as you can guess they put on some awesome concerts (and get your butt kicked in a work out with those 192 stairs!!).  There are tours you can take, one of my personal favorites is Celestial Seasonings where you get to see where they make the tea. You can enjoy the beauty of Colorado's nature by hiking, biking or white water rafting. There are just so many options! One of the great things about Denver is the Rocky Mountains, they are just so amazing and breath taking. The mountains host some of the most fun things to do in the state. Besides the fantastic skiing and snowboarding there are cute little towns full of unique shops and delicious restaurants that are one of a kind.

Concerts, novelty shows, great shopping, fine dining at a college student price. These are all things you can do right here in Denver within a short drive from campus! So make sure when you are here you take some time to check out what there is to do in The Mile High City!

Training day 1: Transition

Transition. That was the theme today in training. We began today with our introductions, we had to practice these since we would be doing them over 10000000 times a day during orientation (no exaggeration there!). We then went into some team building and team expectation exercises. These included some drawing, writing and a very fancy collage that we all collaborated on.

Transition. Our team will be transitioning very quickly even though we just started with the departure of our current director. Even though we are all very very very sad to see this person leave we are excited for the opportunities that are ahead. Our team will be evolving (and transitioning) throughout the summer and with the new changes we will be making the Orientation sessions even better for the students!

Transition. After our team building exercises we enjoyed a fabulous lunch which was a local pizza shop that is right next to school. (It was sooo yummy!!) Once we had devoured the pizza we began our Residential Life session with the one and only Mr. Pickett. This session was fun, very informational and concluded with a quick tour of Johnson Hall. All of us on the Orientation Team are now "experts" (so we think) of the housing on campus so please feel free to ask any questions and if we do not know the answer we can direct you to the correct people.

Transition. Our final session on the day was with SAFS (Student Academic Financial Services). This session was very interesting and we all learned a lot! We learned about loans, scholarships (which you should all apply for...), some academic stuff, loans, credits and a lot more. This will be one of the most important offices while you are a student at JWU so make sure you are always nice to the people in this office! 

Transition. Our day ended with a brief meeting with the Senior Staff members. This was an unexpected meeting and was important at the same time. We learned more about the transition that would be taking place this summer by learning about the new director we would be working with. Like mentioned earlier we are all very sad but excited for the new opportunity we have all been presented with. This summer will embody the theme of transition. with the transition our team will be making along with the transition you will all be making. Going from high school to college can be scary but with a little help and guidance your transition can be very smooth and successful.

Hakuna Matata

Journey: An act of traveling from one place to another. 


College can be the journey of a life time, but like all other journeys it is best to be prepared. You might be thinking what is the best way to prepare for college, well I have the answer for you. Summer Orientation. That is where we come in. The Orientation Leaders will be your go-to peeps for any questions about the campus, classes or any questions you may have. We will be using this blog as a way to answer some of your questions, give you updates about what's happening this summer, help prepare you for summer orientation and let you know what we are up.


Speaking of which tomorrow it all begins. When the clock hits 8:30am our summer of being an Orientation Leader begins with our first day of training! Tomorrow we begin our quest in learning how to churn our experience and campus knowledge  into useful information for you all! We will learn to be your Timon and Pumbaa for your jounrey to college. And yes we even sing and dance so get ready!


As you are preparing to embark on your collegiate journey remember Hakuna Matata (which means no worries for the rest of your days, its a problem free philosophy.... (sorry I got the song stuck in my head for a second!)) Make sure you keep reading for updates and to get to know your Summer Orientation Team!


Hakuna Matata all!