Some students don’t spend more than two hours a night studying, but in the spring semester these leaders spent more than 100 hours studying about FAU and it’s not even a class. In fact, to be an orientation leader you must keep your grades up in your real classes, too.
At orientation, leaders will be wearing an FAU visor and backpack with a rectangle name tag pinned to their red polo shirts. They’ve got smiles glued on their faces and outgoing personalities to match. With all that studying, they claim to know everything there is to know about FAU. But who are your orientation leaders?
While the highlight of your interaction with an orientation leader might be the nifty tour they give while walking backwards, these student leaders have a lot more to offer than quick tips.
“We definitely do more than just give tours,” says junior, hospitality and tourism manager Janice Barreto, a first-time orientation leader. “We go in-depth about academics and we inform and educate students about college. We ‘guide’ students on much more than just pointing to buildings.”
Sophomore nursing major, Amanda Pancho says even her friends take her job for granted.
“I try to explain to my friends that this job is so much more than giving tours,” says Pancho. “We try to help students to feel a sense of community for the school. That part of our job is kind of under-rated.”
What most students don’t know is that before stepping foot inside an orientation, the orientation team spends five months in training, learning everything there is to know about FAU.
“We had meetings every Thursday night where a new department at FAU would come in and teach us about the services they had to offer,” Barreto says. “We spent about five hours a week in spring learning all about FAU and we’ll work about 30 hours a week this summer.”
Barreto says being an orientation leader is fun, but the job itself “is not easy.”
“Being an orientation leader is extremely time-consuming,” says Christine Lynch, associate director of orientation. “They work their butts off from January to January.”
The orientation leaders must be in the office at 6:30 a.m. each day of orientation. The group has to setup for the days of orientation before greeting students and parents at 8 a.m. Sessions begin at 8:30 a.m. and run all day.
During the day, new students will spend time with their orientation leaders in a special session called “student to student.” As one of the sessions rated most highly by students, this is a chance for new students to ask questions only an FAU veteran would know. The orientation leaders also perform a skit about campus life, teach FAU cheers and give an in-depth tour of the school.
Angela Dager, a junior elementary education major and first-time orientation leader says she’s a “guide through college, not just the campus.”
From knowing FAU’s history to rattling off the list of important FAU graduates and informing new students on how to get a parking permit, the orientation leaders claim to know more than any other student on campus.
“The orientation leaders can answer any question you have,” Lynch says. “They know more about FAU than any other FAU student and they are so much more beyond a tour guide.”
