Orientation co-coordinators Christie Caywood '03 (left) and JoAnna Jarboe '02 surrounded by Alvarez books sent to incoming students

"I am a Dominican, hyphen, American," said Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, this year's "common read” for incoming students. "I find that the most exciting things happen in the realm of that hyphen--the place where two worlds collide or blend together."

New students will begin experiencing this exciting realm of collision this week, as they combine worlds, experiences, and identities during "Women Leading Leading Women," MHC's event-packed orientation program that began August 30 with a preorientation for international students and concludes September 5. The newcomers will participate in activities that range from a students-only "Women Leading Leading Women" gathering with upperclasswomen to a "Many Voices, Many Minds" conversation with faculty, staff, and students. A complete schedule of events, including swimming, sidewalk chalking, canoeing, movies, and ice cream socials, is available at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/orientation.

Also listed on this revamped and comprehensive Web site are preorientation activities planned for ALANA (African American, Latina American, Asian American, and Native American) and international students; links to MHC departments and local shopping areas; and orientation-related events that occur throughout September, such as the September 7 reading by author Alvarez and Second*Saturday activities, which are planned for September 15.

Masterminding all these events, in conjunction with the Office of the Associate Dean of the College, is the fourteen-member Student Orientation Board, including summer orientation coordinator JoAnna Jarboe '02. She calls college "the transition between childhood and adulthood, a time for exploring who you are." Said Jarboe, "Orientation is part of that exciting in-between time. It helps you form community right away so that you don't get lost in the transition from where you were to where you're going to be."

Small-group formats are a repeat from last year and will help students ease into the College community and the many traditions that first attracted Jarboe's co-coordinator Christie Caywood '03 to Mount Holyoke. Whether it's canoeing on Upper Lake, choosing a plant at the Talcott Greenhouse, or learning about M&Cs or other rituals too secret to name, orientation activities enable new students take their first steps toward becoming a part of MHC, Caywood explained.

"I had pressure from my small community and even from school officials to stay home, find a husband, get married," said Caywood, who grew up in Waurika, Oklahoma. "Orientation lets you find people dealing with similar value struggles." Her own orientation favorite is the upperclass talent show called Orientation 101, "where the class spirit really hits you."

Orientation is coordinated by the Office of the Associate Dean of the College in conjunction with the Student Orientation Board and four student committees, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of the Academic Deans, the Office of International Affairs, the Frances Perkins Program, and the Office of Student Programs.