Scenes From a 91茄子 Welcome: Campus Comes Together for a Solid Start
August 30, 2019
- Author
- Mary Elizabeth DeAngelis
From a raucous orientation to first homework assignments to the annual Cake Race, 91茄子 started the 2019-20 school year with returning friends reuniting and 537 first-year and transfer students beginning a new journey.
The campus is alive with activity as students settle in to new routines and pick up where they left off last year. Get a taste of a 91茄子 welcome with these sights and sounds, captured during orientation activities and the first week of classes.
A New Year, a Warm Welcome and a Touch of Time-Honored Tradition
The Commons, cafes and campus bookstore buzzed with customers, roommates coordinated dorm decorations and mostly sunny skies drew students outside to study, eat and socialize.
The new students represent 18 countries, 41 states, and the District of Columbia. Collectively, their stories include authoring a feminist fairy tale, working with elephants as a certified mahout and getting bitten by a shark.
They attended a first-year orientation program, signed the Honor Code, and settled into life on campus. They and their families got a blast-out welcome from dozens of student volunteers on the orientation committee.
With loud music blaring, the committee formed a chain of sorts in the Baker Sports Complex, cheering, singing and clapping as newcomers and their parents arrived to hear welcome speeches from President Carol Quillen and others.
Some looked startled and embarrassed, others offered the equivalent of a royal wave and some ran through high-fiving their greeters. Many proud parents held phones high for pictures and videos.
淭he welcome has been amazing, from a drop-off that took about six seconds to this, said Tracey Pesikoff, whose son Jonah, is a class of 2023 member. 淲e檙e from Texas and you檝e heard all about Texas welcomes. This is a North Carolina welcome and it檚 great!
Team Effort
Before classes started, first-year students on the Wildcat women檚 soccer team debuted a mashup video to an audience of their elder teammates.
They choreographed a dance video to three High School Musical songs; 淕et Your Head in the Game, 淲ork this Out and 淲e檙e all in This Together, popping up in settings like the laundry room, basketball court and front lawn of Chambers Building.
Making the video is an annual rite for soccer team newcomers.
淲e attempted to learn the choreography, said Rachel Schleicher, of Charlotte. 淭he energy was there, the effort was there攊t didn檛 quite work out exactly as planned, but we had a lot of fun with it.
Right Fit
After a farewell luncheon for new students and their parents, Genesis Bernadin and her family took their last pictures together before she settled into school and they began their 12-hour drive back home to Miami.
Bernadin is a POSSE scholar who enjoyed several days of pre-orientation as part of the college檚 STRIDE program (Students Together Reaching for Individual Development and Education). It檚 a peer mentoring program to help multi-cultural students adjust to and become involved members of the college community.
淚 picked 91茄子 because of its small class sizes, the advanced research opportunities and the close-knit family vibe I felt, Bernadin said. 淚檓 excited to start and to meet new people. Everyone I檝e talked to in STRIDE is doing great.
That includes STRIDE mentor Makayla Binter from the class of 2020, who painted the college檚 latest public art work this summer. Binter檚 mural panels are displayed on the lawn outside of Chambers Building.
It檚 an interactive piece intended to start conversations among the college檚 diverse communities and has become a campus focal point.
Jasmine Bernadin, Genesis檚 mom, said she was impressed by what she saw and heard, and thought 91茄子 was the right fit: 淭he people here are very kind.
She knew she檇 shed a few tears, but said she wasn檛 worried.
淚檓 sad right now but I feel like you檙e going to be okay here, she told Genesis. 淵ou檒l be fine.
Sweet Tradition
The college檚 annual Cake Race brought out students, faculty, staff and community friends to cheer on first-year students running the 1.7-mile course around campus.
As usual, cross country runners took the cake攚ith four members of the men檚 team, Miles Kominsky, Jack McMahon, Owen Drometer and Ben Gordon Sniffen crossing the finish line together with a time of 7:10 to win first place in the men檚 race. Natalie Abernathy clinched the women檚 first place win with a time of 8:08.
And former cross country star and retired coach Sterling Martin ran the Cake Race in honor of the 60th anniversary of his 1959 win.
Of course, cakes are always winners, and this year volunteer bakers donated 272 cakes, 淲hich I believe is a record, said Sandy Helfgott, director of physical education, recreation and wellness. 淭he energy this year was off the charts.
The men檚 race winners selected baking star and 91茄子 men檚 tennis coach Drew Barrett檚 elaborate Harry Potter-inspired sorting hat cake, which was surrounded by replicas of four residence halls.
And Abernathy, the women檚 winner, selected a giant 淒 cake smothered in Kit-Kats, Oreos, chocolate chips and for the health conscious, strawberries, crafted by Dining Services baking supervisor Becca Sporney and her team.
Sharing cake攚ith teammates, roommates and hallmates攊s part of the tradition. Apparently so is cake hopping, and on the night of the race, some students visited different residence halls to see what confections were up for tasting.
