Hey PA’s!

We OC’s are all back on campus now and working furiously to finish up plans for PA Week, and Week One! We are all so excited for you to arrive on campus and get working with you all (well still having tons of fun of course!). If you have any questions about arriving to campus or any complications arise feel free to contact any of us by phone or email.

By the end of today you will receive your advisees and the letters you wrote a few weeks ago will have been sent out to them. So, if you start receiving responses don’t be surprised! We are also working on completing your individualized work schedules for during Week One so you will all have a better idea of what you will be doing. There is a lot going on and we are all looking forward to Saturday!

In nine tiny days you will all be back on campus and PA training will begin! I just wanted to give you a bit of information on checking in and moving in and such.

You should have gotten an email (or multiple emails) from Kevin Forti regarding moving in. As his second email states, you can move in on Saturday, August 14^th. Check in starts at 1:00pm, so come to the UC check in at Orientation Headquarters located in Rosie (the room across from Grace Conference Room on the 1^st floor of the UC). There you will get your keys to your room, your sawheeet PA t-shirt, your PA Binder (which will be the guide to your life for the next 2 weeks), and all sorts of other great things.

From there you will have time to move in and settle until our kick-off dinner in Tilton at 6:00pm. Take advantage of this time to move in, as you probably won’t have a lot of time to settle in to your rooms once the craziness of PA Training starts and leads right into Week One.

Also, keep in mind if you are a van driver you will need to be in the UC for your van driver certification from 2:00pm-4:00pm that day.

Email me at kwynveen@clarku.edu if you have any questions! Can’t wait to see you all so very soon.

Hey guys! My name is Jess and I’m the OC for the International Program. This is my first blog post to the PA website – Yay!

Unlike some of the other PAs – like Agatha, who has a whole lot to coordinate across the board, and Kelly, who is literally running the administrative show – I have a pretty focused job. I am working really closely with Amy Daly in the Office of Intercultural Affairs to coordinate International Students Orientation. ISO runs every year just before the typical Week One starts, so international students have a chance to acclimate and get used to life in the US as well as Clark. I can imagine that it is a ton to deal with but hopefully our programs will help new international students not only get a handle on what Clark is all about, but understand that they are a valued and unique part of the community with lots of support systems in place to ease the transition to college. We are finalizing the schedule now.

I was excited to recently see the list of countries our new first year international students hail from.  It’s no shabby lineup! Our new students come from: Armenia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the UK, the US and Vietnam.

Are you from any of these places? Do you have advice for incoming international students? Know any tips or tricks international first years may benefit from during the college/US transition? If so, email me at jmattleman@clarku.edu and I can help connect you with a first year student from your home country or work your experience/feedback into one of our programs!

Keep checking back to this website for more updates and information as we get closer and closer to PA training. And, as always, get in touch with any of the OCs if you have questions or ideas for these upcoming, jam-packed weeks. J

Hey PAs! There will be a variety of new orientation programs that will make this year’s Week One really, truly awesome (not that I’m biased or anything …)  The program I probably most excited for is the Jumping In: Tips & Tricks for Successful Academic Transition!  Within the program there will be eight thirty-minute workshops: two faculty workshops and two OC workshops. To keep the size of the workshop small and more manageable, the faculty and OC workshops will be presented twice.  Professor Jenn Plante and Professor Mark Turnbull will conduct the faculty workshops.  They will discuss faculty tips on how to be successful outside the classroom such as how to determine what type of studier you are, how to read for college level courses, how to best utilize resources on campus, and why it is so important to be organized and stay on top of your class syllabi.  The OC workshops will be presented by, as might you might have already guessed, the OCs and will discuss the “things I know now, that I wish I knew then.”  This list includes studying abroad, staying organized, finding a good location to study, and finding balance between your social and academic life.  If you have ANY suggestions for the OC workshop please let any of the OCs know!!

ALSO, we hope to have all of your PA groups finalized within the next few weeks!!  The average group size will be between 10 and 15 first-years!!

August is right around the corner, which means Week One is coming! We have been busy here putting together some new programs during Week One this year that you guys might be interested in (and some of which you will be presenting). Here are just a few of the new programs this year.

• Clark Online

The class of 2014 has already been using some of Clark’s online systems like Cicada and Cmail since they have registered for classes over the summer (see Ali’s blog entry for more information). This program is designed to give first years some tips and tricks on how to use many of Clark’s online programs such as Cicada, Cmail, LINK, and the portal. The presenters of this program will be YOU, so get excited!

• “Jumping In” Workshops:

Here’s another new program this year, which is actually split into two different programs. These workshops will focus on personal development during one session, and academic  transition in another. First year students will have the chance to hear from peers as well as professional staff about how to successful transition into college both socially and academically.

• Voice of Experience: Major Q&A with Peer Advisors

As you can possibly guess from the title of this program, the Peer Advisors will be running this program as well! This session was designed to give first years a chance to speak with upperclassman about any questions they may have about their majors. Since students have already registered for classes by the time they arrive at Clark this year, the questions will probably be more about what classes they will have to take over the next four years. You’ll have the chance to interact with any first years that have questions over brunch in the caf.

• Scavenger Hunt

Instead of having the bus tours of Worcester this year, all 600+ first years will participate in a Scavenger Hunt! This will be no ordinary scavenger hunt, however, and instead is all done through a cell phone, texting in your answers and receiving clues and locations back. We will be sending students all around campus and Main South, with a pretty great prize for the team that earns the most points. Don’t you worry, all of the PA’s will get a chance to play too! You will each be the leader of your PA group.

You’ll hear much more about each program during PA training which is coming up in just a few short weeks! This is just a taste of some of the new things Week One 2010 will bring.