As the semester winds down and we say goodbye to some of our students, most of us are also gearing up to welcome new students and families to campus!
Some institutions offer a separate “parent track” at summer orientation, and others choose to keep students and parents together for certain sessions.
What specific orientation programs/sessions have been successful at your institution?
Are there some that were unsuccessful?
Are there other summer activities planned to incorporate parents and families into your campus community? Specific mailings, intentional contacts or events?
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Hofstra University offers parent orientation concurrently to new student orientation during eight summer sessions. Parent orientation is a one-day program with informational sessions on wellness and safety, paying for college, technology, advising resources and transitional issues (among others). We also offer parent orientation in January, for the spring admits' families.
Evaluations we received from parents were overwhelmingly positive: parents love getting to know campus resources and staff. They love networking with each other during lunch. They mentioned that they would like to get the printouts of PP presentations, so we will include them in their parent orientation folder this year.
Our parent handbook, that was distributed to parents during last summer orientation, has just been mailed in the welcome packet to all deposited admits. That way, we are reaching more families. The handbook explains campus resources and also describes transitional issues during the summer before college and in the first year. During parent orientation, we ask parents to sign up to volunteer and to register for our family weekend that takes place in October.
Branka Kristic
Director, Parent and Family Programs
Hofstra University
At UNLV, we currently offer parent orientation during Fall Welcome Week and Spring Orientation. We will move to a summer orientation program in 2009. Since parents are with students during the college orientation piece, our afternoon parent sessions focus on campus life aspects. We use skits, panels, movie clips to talk about the following:
Parent Coaching
Campus Safety
Residence Life
Student Involvement
Dining
Health Center
Counseling Center
Rec. & Fitness
Parents seem to enjoy the multi-media aspects of our sessions along with the scenarios of parent behaviors. We end the day with a parent reception sponsored by the Vice-President. This year we will be distributing our first Parent Handbook and we offer information about Family Weekend and getting involved with our Parents Association and Parents Council. We also utilize the NODA parent brochures- which have a great deal of good information in them.
At The University of Mississippi, we strongly encourage parents to attend the Summer Orientation sessions with their students. During the day and a half program, we do split up the parents and students as a part of the "letting go" process. We have special sessions for parents like "Is it Really Time to Say Goodbye?". This session is all about student and parent transitions to college life.
Another great session is with our Orientation Leaders. They do a Q % A on what student life is like on campus. Parents also have a reception later in the evening after the picnic and are able to talk with staff members in the Division of Student Affairs. They can also get tours of the campus on one of our unique Double Decker buses.
It's important to keep the parents engaged so they do not feel as if they have to constantly be with their student. They receive information about the Ole Miss Parents Association and Fall Family Weekend as well.
Many parents leave much more comfortable with the process of their child heading off to college. We attempt to leave them with a sense that they are making a new family at Ole Miss.
Ryan Upshaw
Coordinator of Recruitment
Sally McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College
Orientation Leader 2003
At the University of Alabama we offer a parent orientation seperate from the student schedule. The parents only meet up with their student for certain sessions such as the college visit. This tends to work very well. The most popular parent sessions we offer are the "Conversation with UA Students" where student volunteers answer any questions parents have about student life and the "Parent Panel" where parent volunteers answer questions. We try to keep these sessions small, sometimes offering 2 at the same time so parents are comfortable asking questions. We end our orientation with at talk on "Supporting your student and staying connected" where we offer parents tips for staying involved but not too involved and give tips for conversations they should have with their student before the Fall semester begins.
Please check our: www.21stparent.com or www.californiaparents.net for more parents resources. {arents changing one live at a time.
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