Nursing Students Lead Orientation

 Nursing students Hilary Hurlburt (senior) and Jared Dougherty (junior), and four other upperclassmen served as Orientation Coordinators for New Student Orientation for the 2012-2013 school year. The group provided a smooth transition into the York College community for about 1,200 new students.

The orientation team, which also included two York College staff members,  met weekly during the previous spring semester to discuss fun ways to welcome the new students. Each team member was assigned tasks to plan, organize, and execute during Orientation—a campus-wide Involvement Fair, an evening at the York Revolution Stadium, Target Midnight Madness, and a welcome dance social.

The team selected and coached a group of orientation leaders. “We set aside four days to train these students to effectively transition others into the York College community,” said Hilary. Hilary and Jared fostered customer service and leadership skills and passed on their indepth knowledge of the York College campus.

Group members juggled class work, other organizational involvement, and jobs outside of York College. “Time management is a huge part of being successful,” said Jared, who is also vice president of the Campus Activity Board. “We have a schedule and timeline to follow and we need to be on top of our game to make Orientation a success.”

“The skills that we learned can be translated to nursing.  The ability to balance our time and create schedules for ourselves will benefit us in the clinical setting. The leadership qualities that we have learned gave us the resources to communicate effectively with groups as well as individuals on both the peer and professional level,” said Jared.

Photo: Kathleen Espey, Jason Steinmetz, Joseph McElwee, Kyle Joines, Jared Dougherty, and Hilary Hurlburt coordinated New Student Orientation for 1,200 freshmen.