Students are gearing up to head back to school. Many of them are making that giant leap from high school to university.
As a way of making this transition a little easier, members of the St. Thomas community have spent the summer preparing a rocking week of orientation events to welcome our new students.
The theme for this year’s welcome week is ‘STU Hero’ which was originally styled after the popular game, Guitar Hero.
But welcome week chair Andrew Lockhart says the idea has taken on a whole new identity.
“I thought was interesting but then I noticed you could stretch it to the music genre, and rock and roll in general. And then Andrew Titus took it and he’s going to turn it into students becoming heroes as they leave the room at Titusfair. They’ll get the chance to be turned into heroes. They’re going to wash away their past and be welcomed to the new university life” he said.
“So the meaning just keeps stretching and stretching, and stretching. But at that same event we’re going to have some rock and roll air guitar, so it’s got two meanings in one.”
Lockhart thinks welcome week is a great opportunity for new students to open up and embrace their new community. For him, it’s about coming out of your shell, making friends and finding your place at STU.
Lockhart and his dedicated team of organizers and leaders will keep the new recruits busy all week with events like a corn boil with UNB frosh, lazer tag and bowling at Kingswood, a hypnotist, and a concert this Saturday featuring Two Hours Traffic.
Lockhart says there has been a good turnout of students for events so far. He says he doesn’t want students to feel pressured to come out to events, but instead to feel encouraged to come out and have fun.
Chris Fournier is a new student. He is at STU to get his bachelor of arts, which he then hopes to put toward an education degree. But he’s not just looking forward to the education he’ll receive here, but for the friendships and the campus life.
“I’m looking for like, the big resident campus feel. Where you can get involved in a whole bunch of activities and still get a really good education.”
Many new students like Fournier are very excited about the events that await them this week.
