Welcome Week Activities

  The first week of college is a difficult adjustment for many students. However, Penn State does an incredible job at planning welcome week activities to help you meet new people and get involved. Welcome Week is a full week planned with events that have something to offer for everyone. I can vividly remember my first welcome week last year. Welcome Week gave me the opportunity to make many great friends and enjoy some stress-free time for a smooth transition to college. A few important aspects of welcome week include…

1.     Resident Assistant and Floor Meetings (and dinner!)

This is the first chance you get after moving in to get to know the people you will be sharing a floor with for the rest of the year! During this time, you will get to learn about your residence hall, eat dinner with your floor, and head off to President’s New Student Convocation.

2.     President’s New Student Convocation

Convocation is when all of the new students gather together in the Bryce Jordan Center to President Barron speak. Everyone also gets a free t-shirt that is color coded by college. This is a great opportunity to learn more about your floor mates and about Penn State itself! Convocation is followed by LateNight at the HUB with acrobats, magicians, escape rooms, a movie on the HUB lawn, and giveaways.

3.     Be a Part from the Start

Be a Part from the Start is a pep rally where everyone learns the fight song, the alma mater, and even some cheers. This event is a great way to get a sneak peek at the Nittany Lion spirit!

4.     Nittany Lion Blocky Party

The Nittany Lion Block Party is on the first Friday of the semester. The party includes free food, live entertainment, and different fun activities such as tie dye (time to de-stress!).

5.     The Involvement Fair

There are over 1,000 different clubs at Penn State that you can be a part of! The best way to find out what you might be interested is the involvement fair. The involvement fair is on the HUB Lawn and has representatives from each of the clubs there to talk to you. You can sign up for as many clubs as you like. In order to make the most out of the fair is to get as much information as possible and to try new things!

It might seem scary moving off to college and being on your own but Penn State’s Welcome Week is a great way to ease your transition and something amazing to look forward to. The full schedule for Welcome Week can be found at the following site http://orientation.psu.edu/content/welcome-week-schedule.

By: Cynthia Letting (Envoy Team J)