Students from various walks of life will flood Saint Louis University’s campus this month, some for the first time. The new students will find that they have many differences from each other as they chat with other new faces. However, they will find a general commonality; they are each hoping to find that SLU is a place that they can call home and meet friends they may keep for life. Welcome Week gives these students a chance to familiarize themselves with other students embarking on the same four-year adventure and to get a little taste of the fun times SLU has in store. Welcome Week consists of a series of events that are held on campus from Aug. 18 to Aug. 22.
Students will have the chance to meet others in the quad while watching How to Train Your Dragon and to prove who knows the most useless knowledge during Trivia Night on Aug.18. In addition, they will be able to enjoy a Midnight Breakfast together for the first time on Aug. 21. These are just a few of the numerous activities they will have the opportunity in which to participate.
“Events like trivia night are kind of a forced opportunity to work with each other, and we hope that from this the students continue with the people they have met and develop friendships,” Oriflamme president Keeley Farmar said. “Our biggest goal is for first week students to meet others in as fun a way as possible and make them feel they belong somewhere.”
Welcome Week is a SLU tradition that continues to provide students with the opportunity to develop new friendships year after year.
“Welcome Week has been going on since long before my time,” Coordinator of Undergraduate Initiatives Susan Bertelsmeyer said. “We have a Welcome Week committee that works closely with Oriflamme to bring this week into action. We want to welcome incoming students to campus and introduce them to the campus community.”
Although Welcome Week is an annual tradition, it continues to change as the committee and Oriflamme see fit. The two groups have been working together for two full weeks in order to prepare for the big week and continue improving the activities.
“We learn from the past based on attendance trends and surveys. We like to keep some of the old, traditional events, such as the square dance and the soccer game, but also add new ones, like trivia night, to keep things fresh and exciting,” Bertelsmeyer said.
However, this year Welcome Week aims to integrate first year students with their elders by including students of all years to participate in certain events.
“The soccer game in the past has been Saturday evening but we wanted to make the street party for all students, not just first year. This year we made the soccer game Friday so we could hold the street party Saturday, making it more of a Welcome Back Week Event,” Farmar said.
For the full list of Welcome Week events and times visit the Welcome Week website at http://www.slu.edu/x37696.xml.
