As a student at Grove City College, I have many opportunities to get plugged into different clubs and organizations on campus, all of which provide amazing opportunities. However, the best experience I have had so far is with Orientation Board. Orientation Board is an organization on campus that has the mission of creating a welcoming and exciting orientation process for incoming freshmen students when they arrive on campus. One of the many jobs that the Orientation Board has is assisting freshmen and their families with their belongings on move-in day. As a freshman who experienced this amazing service, I thoroughly appreciated the move-in-day process with the help of the Orientation Board members.
Within the organization itself, members are divided up into different committees. Each committee orients itself towards specific kinds of tasks, for instance, OBP (Orientation Board Publicity) is in charge of jobs like updating our social media page as well as being photographers to document the events from that year. Personally, I was on the Religion Committee. These committees help plan events like our annual service project and Sunrise Service, and we also host a prayer walk for all of the Orientation Board to pray over each building on campus before freshmen arrive.
This year was my first time as a member of the Orientation Board, and I was excited to be a part of an amazing group of people who had hearts to serve incoming students. As a member of the Religion Committee, we are each given events or tasks that we will be in charge of setting up or carrying out throughout our time welcoming freshmen on campus. I worked with another person on orchestrating our annual Sunrise Service. This event featured a morning worship service as well as a senior Orientation Board member as a speaker to bring a message of encouragement to freshman students. This was personally my favorite event to attend as a freshman, and I was delighted to help make it a wonderful experience for new students. The process of setting up and preparing for this event was a challenging but wonderful experience. I gained experience in the delegation of tasks, communication with team members and faculty on campus, as well as problem-solving to make this event run as smoothly as possible. The event turned out great and provided the freshmen an opportunity to turn their gaze towards Jesus in the midst of one of the biggest transitions in their lives.
The students who make up Orientation Board are some of the most amazing people I know. They are all great leaders with servant hearts that desire to give incoming freshmen the best Grove City College arrival they can. I plan to join Orientation Board again next year for another Christ-minded, servant-hearted, and leadership-building experience. Although Orientation Board facilitates an entire event dedicated to helping students find clubs and organizations to join on campus, any student wondering what organization to join should take a serious look at OB.
