Acclimating to First Year at KSC

Caroline Perry
Managing Executive Editor

Transitioning from high school to college comes with all sorts of changes, most that can be nerve wracking and exciting all at once. But having opportunities and the ability to make connections during the first-week of transition can make all the difference. This definitely held true for two first-year students who marked Keene as their new home for the next four years.
First-year Zoey Luopa described her transition into college as exciting. Luopa, who was recruited for the Keene’s women’s basketball team, added that meeting new people and getting to experience campus life has been one of the highlights of her very first week.
“My roommate and I get along great and I’m already starting to feel like I fit right into the campus and the community,” Luopa said. The first-year said that the adjustment was interesting, as far as not having her parents and usual friend group around, but that orientation made the transition a little helpful. “We did a lot during orientation week and I met a lot of people, so it wasn’t a bad start to living on campus,” Luopa said. The first-year said that have the opportunity to meet mentors and become familiar with resources right on campus is extremely helpful.
Another first-year, Rachel Roncaioli, also described her first week as an Owl as exciting and eventful. “Orientation had a lot of events like community service day and a comedian and magician. Then the week after there was a giant jumpy house obstacle course which was a lot of fun,” Roncaioli said. She added that having the opportunity to meet people and adjust before the upperclassmen move in was nice and made things that much easier.
“Knowing that my campus and community supports me and wants me to be involved is really great. I feel like I’ll never be alone through this process,” said Roncaioli.
Coordinator of Student Activities and Organizations Britany Gallagher, said students who are involved through campus through various ways such as joining clubs and organizations, or volunteering, are positively impacted. “That sense of belonging is so critical to students being successful, and staying until they graduate, and earning a good GPA,” Gallagher said. The coordinator also went into detail about the efforts that are made to get first-years involved in the KSC community. “There’s a few different things we do right off the bat. We have involvement with June orientation, we do some of the evening programming during that time. We have the Night Owl Cafe open, and historically I’m one of the people that helps to staff the evenings when we’re open at that time,” explained Gallagher. She added that having a professional staff connection and student staff connection with first-years is important because they are both parenting families that will help lead the new students. Gallagher added, “During June orientation there is also a resource fair and at that a bunch of different departments on campus have tables downstairs in the Student Center. That’s an opportunity for students, parents, and families to connect with professional staff directly.”
KSC works to make students feel welcomed, which is why Gallagher, among others works through the programming of events to give first-years new opportunities, which will lead to stronger foundations in their four year college career. “Sometimes it’s really just as simple as making new connections or making new friends or finding a new dynamic with a student organization advisor,” said Gallagher. The outreach is vital said the coordinator.
Director of Campus Life Jennifer Ferrell also believed in the importance of connections and outreach.
“Students that get involved with student organizations such as clubs, athletics, getting a job on campus, participating in community service, getting connected, you know those students report having a greater satisfaction from their college experience,” said Ferrell. The director added that to be able to provide as many opportunities as possible to students, and recognizing that every student might be interesting in something, is something that is very important to her and her team. Ferrell said that her team works to spend time to work on co-curricular activities, which they then can introduce to incoming students.
“The team is some way, shape or form has been able to be in front of all of the different new people on campus. So at some point the retention of all the information with hold, so the more emphasis the better,” Ferrell said.

Caroline Perry can be contacted at
cperry@kscequinox.com