Out-numbered but matched
On Sept. 7, with a spike in community feeling after the Real AD show, various freshmen could see the sentiment in practice during the kick-off event of ...
Sep 13, 2014
On Sept. 7, with a spike in community feeling after the Real AD show, various freshmen could see the sentiment in practice during the kick-off event of the Brothers and Sisters Program. This year's edition started with a mixer during which freshmen met their assigned big brothers and sisters.
The Brothers and Sisters Program pairs freshmen with like-minded upperclassmen who volunteer to help them with their transition to university life. This year, some upperclassmen have been assigned as many as four brothers or sisters given the recent expansion of the admitted freshmen class.
Nevertheless, this strain on the program has not undermined the students' enthusiasm. Freshman Shreya Shreeraman told The Gazelle she saw the initiative as an opportunity to increase interaction among different classes and ease her transition to college.
"The elder Brothers and Sisters Program sounds like a great way to meet new people, both freshmen and upperclassmen. It would also be really nice to have a mentor-like figure who is not faculty to help us through navigating our maze of a freshman year," she said.
Freshman William Young agreed that advice from upperclassmen was especially useful.
“The only thing better than learning from your mistakes is learning from the mistakes of others. For me, this is the essence of the program: to provide a platform to dispel uncertainties and discover pathways from those who just took the steps we are about to,” Young said.
Although students filled out questionnaires to get to know each other, the event provided little information as to what would be the next step in the program. Given that commitment to the initiative is based on participants alone, Student Government can merely suggest events for the matched students.
Sophomore Alexandru Roşca commented that last year's unsuccessful experience as a little brother motivated him to join this year's program.
"I was a mentee last year and my mentor sort of bailed on me after only one meeting. Thus I decided I can be better than that and enrolled in the program as a mentor," Roşca told The Gazelle.
However, experiences have also been positive. Sophomore Quan Vuong said he made an excellent connection with his big brother, senior Corey Meyer.
"I met one of my best friends [at] college through the Brother and Sisters program," Vuong commented.
Melinda Szekeres is a contributing writer. Email her at thegazelle.org@gmail.com.
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