By Kelsey Murray-
We all remember the awkward icebreakers on the lawn in front of O’Hare, the nerve- wracking first advising meeting where our classes were chosen and our new student seminar groups were held. These are all things that take us back to that first week of freshman year at Salve Regina. Yet, no one seems to do these for the upperclassmen. They are presumably the older, wiser kids on campus. But although seasoned, college sophomores are the forgotten ones who are under the same stress, if not more than the incoming freshmen.
Universities are starting to take notice. At The College of the Holy Cross, hundreds of sophomores join together for a whole new experience – sophomore orientation. The goal of this orientation for the well-seasoned student is to give them the opportunity to talk to department heads and continue their search for the right major. Margaret Frejie, an associate dean at Holy Cross, relayed to the Boston Globe that the “middle children of academia” should be getting just as much attention as the incoming freshmen and outgoing seniors.
In an interview with the Boston Globe, Freije said, “Frankly, the sophomores are already oriented. They’ve been here for a year. What we want to do is say, ‘OK, you’ve made it through your transition. Now let’s take stock.’”
The difference between freshman and sophomore orientation is that the idea consists of not finding out about where students have come, but what they are doing here. Sophomore year usually consists of researching study abroad options, choosing a major, and getting an internship. By having an orientation about how to do these things, sophomores will feel less overwhelmed.
A 2009 report in the journal of the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that many sophomores were adrift in a no-man’s land. They were not pampered like freshmen, but not advanced enough in their studies to feel connected to academic departments, as juniors and seniors do.
Colleges ranging from Holy Cross, to Wheelock, Smith, Suffolk and Illinois Wesleyan have taken up sophomore programs and initiatives in order to boost sophomore confidence and encourage good decision-making.
“I think it would have been really beneficial to have sophomore orientation,” said Christina Canavan, a junior Elementary and Special Education major. “I originally was Elementary Ed and English and if I had known more about the Special Ed minor I could have taken classes for it earlier.”
“[As a sophomore,]you’re not exposed to as many majors as Salve offers and the jobs you can get from them,” Canavan said.
A senior student, Lindy Reid, recently picked her Marketing major going into second semester of her junior year. “I used to have a daily meltdown sophomore year about picking a major,” said Reid. “I just had no idea what the majors required and where they would lead me.”
As the new students on campus start to figure out their place in the Salve community, the sophomores are returning with a year under their belts. This new sophomore initiative may start to influence other college campuses, including ours.
