Last Friday I attended Aggie Orientation at Utah State University. Going into this orientation I wasn’t really expecting much, but I was excited to attend. I had to be at the TSC (Taggart Student Center) around 8:30 in the morning. They gave me a parking pass so that I could park at the stadium and was to take a shuttle up to campus. I was told to meet on the second floor with the A-Team. As I walked up the stairs their were A-Team members waiting at the top of the stairs to direct us new students where to go. The first table you went to, they gave you a piece of paper with the classes you haver registered for. In doing this they wanted to make sure you registered for the correct classes. I got that paper and then they told me to go get my picture taken for my ID card, that was to be picked up at the end of the orientation.  I took my picture and then I waited patiently for orientation to be started.

They lead all of us students into a ballroom with chair and tables. They had breakfast provided. The first person who spoke was an ethics professor. He talked about how you should think of the university as a gym. You go to the gym to make your muscles stronger, so that when you are in a game you can perform to your best ability. Training isn’t fun and most of the times you don’t enjoy it because it is painful; but you do it anyway. That is why we go to school. You are training your brain so that in your career you have experience and can work to the best of your ability. When you are attending school, you are lifting weights to learn how to think and develop. In school you are becoming the learner you need to be. During this seminar it really made a difference in my thinking processes, because it established in my brain the purpose of school. The greatest thing that impacted me was when he closed and said, “Graduation is not the end of your life, it’s the beginning of something wonderful.” This time in school is only supposed to train me to develop my brain for the rest of my life. Then he left and we split up into groups.

Within this small group of 8 people, we got to know everyone. We spent time talking about what we are going to major in and our life goals and hobbies. I told them that I am double majoring in Art and Business. In the business school I got accepted into the Huntsman Scholar Program, it’s the scholarship fund for business students. I am also required to take specific classes specifically for Huntsman Scholars. I also get to go on a paid study of broad with my classmates in between my junior and senior year. I enjoy skiing, painting, working out and spending time with friends and family. After we all introduced each other we got split up into our major, and then we got to go on a tour of the school itself. Out of the 9 people in my major group, I was the only woman. It was really cool to meet with some of the professors etc. After that we walked back to the TSC and had lunch.

The last thing we did was talk for a few hours about campus policies and all the resources we have available to us. Overall, this experience was really awesome, very time consuming but worth all of the information. I really recommend taking the time to go to orientation, it helps a lot.