Due to the precautions taken by Milligan to slow the spread of COVID-19, traditional freshman welcome week activities such as the Doe River Gorge trip, the matriculation ceremony and peer mentor groups had to either be canceled or modified.
Kaelyn Slaughter, an incoming freshman at Milligan College, addressed her first week experience. “I didn’t know anyone.”
Many freshmen entered an already difficult season of life without the normal exciting activities designed to ease the transition.
“The constant questions going through my mind were, how am I going to make friends? Will my college experience be taken away? And what is my new normal going to be,” said freshman Lauren Spry. “It’s an adjustment to move onto campus then be told we can’t be around our new friends.”
While the guidelines set by the school maintain the safety of students and allow in-person classes, the community building activities are more difficult to organize.
“The biggest thing I feel I missed out on was the opportunity to have familiar faces on campus.”
Spry mentioned that asking freshmen to do outside activities or even sending motivational texts to keep the experience personal would help her and other freshmen feel welcomed in their new home.
Looking back on their experience, upperclassmen remember how some activities helped them feel like they belonged at Milligan.
“I honestly don’t know how the freshmen did it,” says Junior Bekah Owen.“I remember being so lost the first week. The trip to Doe River was so strange but at least I got to hang out with people. The freshmen didn’t even get that this year.”
Milligan student life did plan several welcome week activities, but many of the freshmen found it difficult to attend without knowing people beforehand.
“My mentor group tried to do group activities but with restrictions it was just awkward,” said Spry. “We can’t hold freshman traditions and we live under unordinary restrictions. I took each day at a time and tried to make the best of every situation.”
“It was just strange to be the only one who didn’t know other people. It would have been really nice to have a place to meet other freshmen,”added Slaughter.
In the end, resilience seems to be what keeps the class of 2024 moving forward.
Headline photo: Lauren Spry outside Hart Hall, her new home.