College campuses have faced many changes since the beginning of the pandemic. As it broke out right before the start of last school year, the class of 2024 was hardly able to participate in any freshmen welcoming events. However, compared to the continuous cancellation of events last year, student councils of many colleges were fully prepared to welcome this year’s freshmen.
Furthermore, the 53rd student council of the College of Liberal Arts, held two networking and informative events on Jan. 30 and 31. The council provided these events for the newly enrolled class of 2025 and 2024, who had missed out last year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The student council prepared three sessions in each event. The first session briefly gave tips on campus life, such as how to use the school homepage, introduced helpful facilities around the campus, and recommended digital devices for online classes.
In the next session, participants were divided into groups to communicate with each other. Students from the class of 2024 shared stories from their freshman year. The class of 2025 talked about the campus life they would like to experience and were provided with a virtual campus tour to look around the school buildings.
During the final session, the classes of 2024 and 2025 were grouped together to talk about their hobbies and interests. The student council also matched partners from the two different classes so that they could get to know each other. This effort was made by Han So-weon, the president of Beyond, as she wanted to provide freshmen with a chance to meet their seniors.
“Although students in the class of 2024 have already spent a year at Ewha, they could not make special memories or new friends due to COVID-19,” Han said. “This is why we invited them to the freshman events: so they could communicate with new people.”
JoYoUs, the 53rd student council of the College of Arts & Design, held an orientation session for incoming freshmen on Feb. 22. Using Zoom and Google Meet, JoYoUs planned the event in two parts: one hosted by the college’s student council and the other by the divisions’ student councils.
Ju Hyo-jin and Yoo Ji-hyun, co- representatives of JoYoUs, shared some of their insights and thoughts on the event.
“We put our efforts into making informative materials on the tips for everyday school life to form a comfortable atmosphere for freshmen to socialize and collect the information they need,” Ju and You said.
Furthermore, the co-representatives elaborated on reasons why they invited the class of 2024 to the event, along with this year’s freshmen.
“Inviting the class of 2024 to this year’s freshmen orientation was an attempt to help the class of 2024 feel more included as most of them missed their chances to spend their freshman year socializing with their seniors and classmates.”
Ju and Yoo stated that they hoped the session would give students the confidence about themselves that they can do anything.