Nervous freshmen might bite their nails, pull their hair and tap their feet at the thought of starting college.
Fortunately for these anxious students, there is a complete day dedicated to calm those first day of school jitters.
Freshman Friday is an all day event targeted at those I’m-not-so-sure-how-to-do-this-college-thing students.
The event is set to take place Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“It’s a day that’s set aside just for freshmen to come and be entertained, get excited and find their way around campus a little bit before school gets started, and the upper classmen show up,” said Joshua Sine, director of new student programs.
Sine said his office has spent the last nine months recruiting and welcoming freshmen to Dixie State College.
“Campuses all over the country have an orientation weekend,” Sine said. “We just turned it into six to seven hours of the same thing.”
After registration at 10 a.m., freshmen will attend an assembly. The assembly will help students get familiar with the campus and know what to expect for the year ahead at DSC.
“You could call it the open(ing) ceremonies,” Sine said.
Tuacahn will be performing numbers from the production “Hairspray,” Sine said. He also said there will be a performance from Raging Red.
“President Nadauld is out of town, unfortunately, but we’ve got about a five minute clip from him welcoming students,” Sine said.
After the assembly, students will spend the rest of the day getting accustomed with campus.
Sine said: “There’ll be campus tours. There’ll be lunch with faculty members, and there’ll be a resource fair where clubs, local businesses and community organizations will be there to do everything from engage the students—some may be the special interest groups—or allowing you to sign up for a gym membership.”
The resource fair will be in the Student Activities Center from noon to 3 p.m. Students who attend the event can sign up for clubs and learn about businesses in the community. Jordon Sharp, director of student involvement and leadership, said the businesses usually hand out free stuff.
“Free stuff—count me in!” said Jacen Hafen, a freshman business major from Washington. Hafen, who had never heard of Freshman Friday before, said the business expo sounded like a good time.
Ryan Henslee, a 2012 graduate from DSC, hosted a booth at the expo last year for the accounting club. Henslee said the club had a putting green set up, and students got prizes for putting.
“We gave out candy and talked about the accounting club,” Henslee said.
Following Friday’s activities, student government will be hosting the Red Storm Splash. The event is sure to cool down nervous students, with activities such as a slip-n-slide and a free-pass for the rare opportunity to splash in the water fountain on campus.
The event begins at 7 p.m. for freshmen, but sophomores, juniors and seniors are welcome to join the fun after 8 p.m. There will also be free food, free music and free entertainment.
Chance Truman, a freshman general education major from Enterprise, thought he had missed Freshman Friday since his first semester was last spring. Luckily for him and other students who might have missed Freshman Friday in years past, the event returns again this semester.
“This year we’ll have roughly 2,100 freshmen on campus, and we’ll be looking to get [1,400] to 1,500,” Sine said. “We’ll have to see if we meet our goals.”
