New year, new starts provide growth opportunity

Rehearsed icebreakers, animated upper-class students and nervous first-years: the stage was set for Fall 2022 orientation. Ready with 30 new SJU transfer students, I reminisced on my first-year self and considered the opportunities ahead in the academic year.

The introduction to college sets the stage for student flourishing in their collegiate careers. First-year orientation is both an essential undergraduate rite of passage and a revealing lens into relevant questions of the college experience. Working through choppy conversations with new peers foreshadows overcoming future debates with the Registrar’s Office to find middle ground with schedule changes. Fighting through the 10th straight hour of sun on the CSB Mall demonstrates the resilience necessary to fight through late nights of writing research papers. Working through the campus map previews the manage a budding web of interpersonal relationships.

Moreover, the attitudes present in first-year orientation serve as a snapshot into the same attitudes which new Bennies and Johnnies will hold throughout their first semester – and college years. Our outlook will be essential to success as we navigate the pertinent questions of the year.

Though we acknowledge previous inflection points in the college’s history, we must also realize the uniqueness of this academic year. The campus communities are actively coming to understand the Stronger Integration governance structure, welcoming the college’s first Joint President and considering future generations of students in light of 10 day recent record low enrollment.

This said, these developments should remind our communities to adjust our attitudes in the same manner which first years are during orientation. This year provides new opportunities to advance the culture forward and more opportunities to start.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “For what it’s worth… it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing.”

The new year provides the same license to first-years as it does to the wider campus community. Whether you are exiting high school and coming to college or shifting up grades within the undergraduate level, seize the opportunity to be whoever you want to be. If you have had more than a few conversations with Brian and Carol Bruess, you have likely heard that on-campus involvement serves as a leading predictor for future student success and human flourishing.

Small decisions like attending a club meeting or rally may seem like just that–small–when isolated. However, like orientation and on campus involvement, we must consider the broader and historical implications of these decisions to engage. The aggregate of engagement is the spirit of development which leads to structural change such as the creation of the Multicultural Center or an award-winning Institute for Women’s Leadership.

Though it seems dramatic, we must remember that the Eugene McCarthy’s or Corie Barry’s of these campuses were once just like me and you–Bennies and Johnnies. Student development is seen through the repetition of starts, the collection of conscious choices towards growth. Whether you are a first-year or a rising junior, I challenge you to imagine a year filled with these starts. We will be better because of it.