By Emily Clark ‘15
A group of 17 students—15 first-years and two upperclassmen—crowd into a common room around a small pool table. At one end of the table, a student attempts to flip a plastic spoon in the air using only a second plastic spoon. On the other end of the table, a student jumps and scurries to catch the air-born utensil in a plastic cup. The object of the game is to get five spoons in the cup in 60 seconds. There’s screaming and laughing amidst introductions and handshakes.
No, this isn’t some strange Rhodes ritual, or Club of Utensil Flingers Meeting. It’s a scene from the first night of Welcome Week, and a campus-wide Minute To Win It challenge.
Each year, Rhodes College invites all first-year and transfer students to campus a week before classes begin for a jam-packed schedule of orientation activities. Students participate in everything from the silly—campus-wide Minute to Win It—to the serious—the Honor Code and Social Regulation code signings. First-year students are led by upperclassmen, called Peer Assistants (PAs), and have opportunities to meet with various members of faculty and staff throughout the week to ease their transition into college life at Rhodes.
This year featured a new leadership team, and, with that, changes to the typical Welcome Week program. Dan Schrader, a 2010 Rhodes graduate and former admission counselor for the college, accepted the position of Director of New Student Programs in the spring, and took over from Regina Simmons on July 5th. He was assisted by New Student Programs intern Megha Fernandes ‘16, and a staff of more than 70 PAs. With just over a month to prepare before 550 students arrived on campus, Schrader hit the ground running.
The flinging of spoons scene is only one snapshot of the chaos and camaraderie that occurred on the first night of Welcome Week. Minute To Win It was a completely new event for Rhodes, and served as an update on the traditional pep rally that typically took place the first night. Megha explains, “We wanted to welcome the new students to Rhodes in a way that would familiarize them with the campus, strengthen their PA group dynamic, and, overall, just be a fun experience to start out their college career.” Junior PA leader Alex Clementi stated the interactive, team-focused atmosphere of the event helped her group jump right into the Rhodes life. She says “Earlier that day [the first day] they had been complete strangers to one another. My partner and I were amazed at how everyone came together so quickly to cheer on their group members and celebrate with them after they accomplished a task.” Events ranged from utensil flinging, to cup stacking, to balancing irregular objects on teammate’s heads, and completing logic challenges. Senior PA leader Alex Galloway echoed her sentiment. He said, “As a group, we ran, strategized, laughed, and cheered together. As the year moves on, it may be a challenge to get everyone together as a full group, but I think everyone will remember that first night.”
The Curb Institute Block Party added an event to the Welcome Week schedule on a night that previously didn’t have programming. The Lair Patio served as the central location for this 3-hour dueling piano performance, which featured duet-piano renditions of everything from the Backstreet Boys to Elton John. The food truck Stickem also made an appearance, with free food for all students. From dancing to singing along, to snacking on grilled chicken and shrimp, the Block Party provided an additional social outlet for first-year students to mix and mingle with their peers.
The last new event was inspired by Ignite Memphis, a twice-yearly program sponsored by Undercurrent with the goal to “inspire and enlighten the city.” During Ignite Memphis, 12 speakers give five-minute presentations on topics deemed interesting to the Memphis public. They talk in front of a PowerPoint presentation with 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. Ignite Rhodes followed the same presentation format, but with just seven speakers instead of 12. The topics ranged from becoming a college-aged entrepreneur to handling panhandling in Memphis to safe alcohol consumption in college. Schrader explained that he “wanted people to start thinking about their Rhodes experience in a different light and wanted to do it in a nontraditional way. I personally enjoyed Ignite Memphis when I attended because it was short, sweet, and to the point, and thought that it would resonant well with first-year students.” The program allowed first-year students to get a broad look at the opportunities at Rhodes and in Memphis before focusing in on more specific skills and opportunities with their PA leaders in small group meetings.
In addition to these new events, first-years participated in myriad other programs to help them acclimate to their new environment academically, socially, and through campus activities. According to Schrader, the most rewarding part of leading his first Welcome Week was seeing students working together and interacting with each other. “When I hear that PAs are becoming friends with their first-year students, and see real friendships forming—that’s my most rewarding moment,” he explains. Megha agrees. “Honestly, every time I overhear a freshmen say how great the programs during Welcome Week were, how much they appreciated and learned from their PA leaders, or how they already feel oriented with the school, that′s a really rewarding moment,” she says. “At the end of the day, those were our true goals for Welcome Week, and realizing that we′ve accomplished our core objectives makes every minute we put into Welcome Week worth it.”
Preparations for next year? “Started on the first day of classes,” Schrader says, laughing.