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WOW, or “Week of Welcome,” at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo "is one of the largest volunteer orientation programs in the country. Each year, approximately five to six hundred trained student leaders welcome freshmen and transfer students to the campus and San Luis Obispo community. This is a drug- and alcohol-free program that focuses on academics, community awareness, social issues, on- and off-campus resources, and forming connections with other students."[1] This program has been used as a model for other new student orientation programs, such as Paso Robles High School located in Paso Robles, CA.[2] Weird Al Yankovic, a Cal Poly alumni, produced and narrated two songs about the orientation program in 1978 and 1979 during his early performing years [3].

Contents

[edit] Background

"Week of Welcome", or WOW, is an organization that has evolved over the years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in order to welcome the incoming freshmen class, as well as transfer students, to life on the Cal Poly campus and the greater community. The program works as such: new students who have registered for the orientation program in the summer before entering Cal Poly are assigned to a WOW group of around 20 new students and led by two WOW Leaders. These WOW leaders have been at Cal Poly for one year or more and have completed what the WOW Organization calls “Spring Training,” where they learn the ins and outs of what it means to be a WOW Leader. Once enrolled in “Spring Training,” the students are referred to as LITs, or Leaders in Training and commit themselves to 10 LIT meetings every Tuesday night of Spring Quarter at 7pm, as well as some outside workshops. A LIT graduates to a certified Orientation Leader at the discretion of their facilitators, the people who train the Orientation Leaders. Orientation leaders plan their week of activities in the summer before Fall Quarter. They then receive their list of "Wowies" (new student WOW participants) on the morning of the first day of orientation. WOW Week takes place the week before Fall classes begin.[4]

[edit] 2007 WOW Facts:

  • Number of WOWies: 4,000
  • Number of Student Volunteers: 683
  • Local Business Sponsors: 69
  • Campus Participation: 135 student clubs, 72 majors and departments,

and six colleges

  • Presentation Topics: body image, diversity, drugs and alcohol, sexual awareness and personal safety, and stress and depression[5]

[edit] History

“Week of Welcome” was introduced in 1957 at California Polytechnic State University and was originally called “Welcome Week.” The original format was designed to provide on-campus leadership training to students from campus clubs, student government, and other campus groups. The program expanded with the population of the school, and new students were then organized into clubs of around 30 students and 4 advisors, each with a unique club name and personality.

In the beginning years of the program, the first half of “Welcome Week” was held in the city of San Luis Obispo, learning about the campus and the city itself. The second half was a 2-day retreat called “Welcome Round-Up Camp,” held at Camp Pinecrest and Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria, Ca. At the camp, students participated in a variety of activities in order to get acquainted with other new students in the program.

The current WOW format began in the 1960s. Program staples such as a set training time on Tuesdays at 7pm, a minimum G.P.A. requirement in order to be a WOW Leader, “Rooster Caps” were made mandatory for Leaders and participants and became tradition, and in 1961, two Leaders were assigned to each group of new students with excess leaders assigned to be the first members of Event Staff.[6]

[edit] WOW Training

[edit] Wow Board

Wow board is responsible for overseeing the operation of wow. They have all been on Wow Team and they are responsible for developing the leadership training activities for the Wow Team and LITs (leaders in training). [7]

[edit] Wow Team

WOW Team spends six months preparing for Spring Training and is responsible for training new LITs to become OLs (orientation leaders). They oversee which LITs will graduate spring training and become OLs in the fall, and they themselves have all been OLs. [8]

[edit] Orientation Leaders

During spring training each volunteer is called a LIT or leader in Training. LITs are student volunteers who participate in WOW’s 10 week spring training program. To graduate the spring training program and become an Orientation leader LITs are required to maintain a 2.0 GPA, attend spring training meetings, attend a workshop, Day in the Sun, a “freeday,” and be recommended by the WOW Team member who has been training them. Once an LIT has graduated from Spring Training they and their co-leader are responsible for planning the week for their group. Over the summer the OLs receive a schedule of mandatory events including Awareness presentations, WOW-o-rama, Preface Program, SLO bound, and College Connections. OLs are strongly encouraged to plan each day around these mandatory events from 8 in the morning and to have all “wowies” returned home by 11 o’clock. Local businesses often have special prices for WOW groups, and common WOW week activities include hiking, kayaking, surfing, wall climbing, etc. OLs are required to move back to school the weekend before WOW starts and asked to volunteer some of their time to help with FamOW (family orientation weekend). They help check in the students who have registered for WOW, help freshmen move into dorms, answer questions for new students and their families, etc. During the week OLs are responsible for attending morning meetings at 7am to go over the mandatory events, make sure their schedules for the week are complete and appropriate, clarify any scheduling conflicts, ask any questions, and hear any announcements from the WOW Board. The goal of each wow group is to aquaint the new students to the Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo communities, local businesses, and their colleges, allow them to prepare for classes, make them aware of issues they will most likely encounter at our university, create a safe environment in which new students can make new friends and create lasting relationships, and to get a sense of college life without the stress of classes. [9]

[edit] Event Staff

Event staffers (or E-Staff) are LITs who complete spring training but who have opted to not lead a specific group but to help WOW in other ways. E-staff is responsible for most of the behind the scenes work that happens throughout the week, mainly getting everyone where they are supposed to go, when they are supposed to get there, and getting groups in and out of their presentations in a timely manner. They are largely responsible for checking students in during FamOW, manning the wow booth, setting up booths for awareness faire and block party, they organize the mass bussing of wowies to and from SLO bound and organize countless other events throughout the week.

[edit] Types of WOW Groups

[edit] Non-traditional

Non-traditional student orientation is a one-day event held for new students ages 25 and older. Non-traditional student orientation takes place on a Saturday a week before Fall Quarter classes begin. These students are given the opportunity to meet other students of their type and also get to know campus representatives from various departments. Events such as a panel discussion, a resource faire, and campus tours are held on this day.[10]

[edit] First Year Connection

First Year Connection, also known as FYC, is made up of first year students who live together in the same residence hall, either Yosemite or Sierra Madre. This type of group is assembled to facilitate easy friendships with students who live together. Orientation Leaders who chose to work with this type of group also work with the students’ Resident Advisor to make sure the students make a effortless switch into college life.[11]

[edit] Transfer Groups

Transfer groups consist of students who are new to Cal Poly, but have attended college elsewhere. These groups tend to need less help becoming comfortable with the transition to becoming a Cal Poly student because they most likely have already moved away from home and are comfortable meeting new people. Typically (but not always), these groups are led by former transfer students, as well. [12]

[edit] No Preference Groups

No preference groups are made up of both first year students and transfer students, living on and off campus, who are randomly assigned a WOW group at the beginning of orientation. [13]

[edit] WOW Schedule of Events

[edit] FamOW: Family Orientation Weekend

FamOW starts the weekend before the actual orientation week. Starting on Saturday, new students check into respective residence halls and pick up important items such as keys, books, and IDs. They also get valuable information regarding their new start at Cal Poly. Other events throughout the weekend are: the resource fair, where parents and students learn about different service areas on campus, the Kid’s Passport, which is designed to keep younger siblings interested during the weekend, and finally the Family Barbeque that is served to new students, families and guests on Sunday.

[edit] Weekdays

[edit] Mandatory Events

Throughout the week, there are a variety of mandatory events for WOW groups. These mandatory events start on Monday morning with the opening “WOW Rally.” Monday night features “WOW-A-Rama.” WOW-A-Rama is a two-hour gathering of all the WOW groups on the sports complex to play ice-breaker games and meet people in different WOW groups.

Aside from introducing new students to each other, an important part of the orientation program is to help them make the transition into college life. Beginning Tuesday, students are required to attend three presentations that inform them of different aspects of college life. Tuesday's presentation is entitled "Campus, Community, College Life & Respect," and focuses on diversity, academics and community awareness. The other two awareness presentations are shown on Thursday and Friday, each covering different topics. Thursday's presentation "provide[s] awareness regarding healthy living, having a healthy body image, drug and alcohol use, the choice of whether or not to have sex, safe sex, personal safety, sexual assault and drunk driving." [14] Friday's presentation is the final presentation of the week, where students learn about coping with stress. The presentation helps students find their causes of stress and then gives them resources for help in overcoming it. “All presentations have been created by Cal Poly students, and were designed to introduce new students to issues associated college life as well as better equip them to be successful at Cal Poly.” [15]

Since Cal Poly’s motto is “Learn by Doing,” students are given the chance to go out into the community to get a feel for their new environment. To coincide with Tuesday’s awareness presentation, students participate in “SLO-Bound” on Tuesday afternoon. During SLO-Bound, WOW groups ride the bus downtown to Mitchell Park where many local business set up booths and advertise themselves, then WOW groups walk around downtown to learn about San Luis Obispo shops, restaurants, landmarks, and history.

In an effort to connect to the community members outside of Campus, Cal Poly has organized a shared reading program called PREFACE. Over the summer, students and various volunteers from the surrounding San Luis Obispo County are asked to read a designated book to talk about during WOW. On Wednesday morning, students bring their books, thoughts and questions to a meeting to “review and discuss the book with the help of volunteer discussion facilitators.”[16] There are four main goals [17] of the Preface program, which are:

  1. Project high Cal Poly academic expectations
  2. Convey that reading is integral to intellectual inquiry
  3. Provide a common intellectual experience
  4. Build community on and off campus

“Cities and towns across the nation have found that 'One city/One book' programs serve as a focal point for community discussions. They strengthen a sense of community and enrich our civic life by bringing people of all ages together to listen to other points of view and share their own responses." [18]

The final mandatory event takes place after Wednesday’s morning meeting and is entitled “College Connections.” During College Connections, WOWies meet with their respective colleges and “get the chance to meet other students in the same major, academic advisors, and future professors." [19]

[edit] Optional Activities

Throughout the week, WOW groups are given the option to attend extra activities that are not mandated by WOW. Some of these activities are for pure entertainment, while others are informational and helpful.

Cal Poly and WOW do not require new students to volunteer in the surrounding San Luis Obispo community, but it is an activity that many WOW groups take part in. This activity is properly titled WOW Day of Service, which is held on Friday. On this day, WOW groups perform different community service tasks throughout the day, forming "one of the largest group and volunteer efforts that Cal Poly puts together throughout the year."[20] In 2007, “The event included 63 WOW groups that volunteered at 36 different sites countywide.” [21] Examples of such volunteer efforts are the painting of a group home with the OPTIONS organization in Morro Bay in 2006 and volunteering to help pull weeds at the AIDS Living Memorial Grove in San Luis Obispo in an effort to promote AIDS awareness and safer sex practices. [22] “We strive to create a sense of stewardship and community for new students and therefore introduce them to a wide breadth of organizations,” said Andrene Kaiwi-Lenting, Cal Poly’s director of orientation programs. “We appreciate all of the opportunities that our community provides for our students to get engaged.’’ [23]

Students are given many opportunities throughout the week to gain information about Cal Poly and other helpful organizations. WOW groups are provided with Resource Tours to gain insight on different resources available to them as students, the Awareness Faire that gives them information regarding organizations on and off campus that can guide them in social issues, and the WOW Block Party that shows new students over 100 different clubs and organizations they can be a part of on campus.

There is also a variety of entertaiment programs WOW groups can attend. Some cost a small extra fee for WOWies, but most are free. The entertainment options include a featured comedian or comedians from Comedy Central; Smile & Nod, which is Cal Poly’s comedic improve group; a featured movie either indoors or outdoors; Slam Poetry that “showcase[es] three nationally recognized spoken word artists;"[24] and finally the WOW Exclusive Concert, that usually features a well known group or artist.

[edit] Alternative WOW Groups

[edit] O.U.R.

“O.U.R.”, Orientation for United Raza, is an alternative WOW program that is specified towards minority new students in order to offer these students “with a comfortable environment, and surrounding them with similar people who come from a diverse or culturally enriched back ground.”[25] As with regular WOW groups, O.U.R. works with new students to orient them with what Cal Poly has to offer, as well as the San Luis Obispo Community. Similar to the what the Parent Orientation Weekend does for parents whose children have been enrolled in the WOW program, O.U.R. works to make available bilingual parent workshops in order to inform them on the O.U.R. program and its purposes.[26]

[edit] WOW and Band Camp

An alternative option to a conventional WOW Group is to take part in WOW Band Camp in conjunction with the Cal Poly Mustang Band. “The Pride of the Pacific,” is California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s marching band. In order to allow prospective band members to get to know one another, they have the option to enter this alternative program. They will be grouped together with other new students involved in the Mustang Marching Band, as well as have three Orientation Leaders who are in the band.[27]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/family/index.asp
  2. ^ Etling, Leah. "Connect the Freshmen: Paso High Tries a New Orientation." The Tribune 29 Sept 2007, Tribune: B1.
  3. ^ http://www.al-oholicsanonymous.com/faq/wais.html
  4. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/leaders/index.asp
  5. ^ Wilson, Nick. "WOW Reaffirms Focus on Safety: Poly's Biggest Week of Welcome." The Tribune 5 Sept 2007, Tribune: A1.
  6. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/history/evolution.asp
  7. ^ http://media.www.mustangdaily.net/media/storage/paper860/news/2007/03/13/News/Board.Celebrates.50.Years.Of.Orientation-2773632.shtml
  8. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/history/evolution.asp
  9. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/history/evolution.asp
  10. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/nontraditional/
  11. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/leaders/options.asp
  12. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/leaders/options.asp
  13. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/leaders/options.asp
  14. ^ http://www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/files/2007WOWSchedule.pdf
  15. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/files/2007WOWSchedule.pdf
  16. ^ http://csu.net/newsline/2005/n20050624slo2.shtml
  17. ^ http://preface.calpoly.edu/
  18. ^ http://csu.net/newsline/2005/n20050624slo2.shtml
  19. ^ http://www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/files/2007WOWSchedule.pdf
  20. ^ http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/8231?6a151180
  21. ^ http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/142994.html
  22. ^ http://www.hivpositivemagazine.com/sanluisaso.html
  23. ^ http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/142994.html
  24. ^ http://www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/files/2007WOWSchedule.pdf
  25. ^ http://www.mexa.calpoly.edu/our/
  26. ^ http://www.mexa.calpoly.edu/our/
  27. ^ http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/wow/newstudents/options.asp