NEW ORIENTATION PROGRAM AT MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE

For immediate release
August 11, 2000

NEW ORIENTATION PROGRAM AT MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE LINKS
STUDENTS TO THEIR NEW COMMUNITY
"Second* Saturday" to Take 288 Students to 29 Off-Campus Sites on Sept. 1

SOUTH HADLEY, Massachusetts—When Mount Holyoke College's choral director left a meeting one day last February concerning the experience of first- and second-year students, she had one idea on her mind: connection. Cathy Melhorn knew there had to be a better, quicker way to connect entering students with one another, with the school's loyal alumnae, and with the greater geographical area and community that surrounds Mount Holyoke's beautiful campus.

The college committee had homed in on connection as its theme, after learning that students best thrive at college when they feel a tangible connection—with friends, with a professor or staff member, with their studies. Melhorn also knew firsthand how successful orientations could be in establishing initial connections for new students, as both of her children had benefited from intensive presemester orientations at Yale and Carleton. Twenty-four hours later, Melhorn had the basic outline and a list of 19 project ideas for a new orientation program at Mount Holyoke, and Mount Holyoke's "Second* Saturday" program for new students was launched.

On September 16, the third Saturday of the month but the second Saturday of every new Mount Holyoke student's experience this fall, 288 students will have the chance to make multiple connections through the new Second* Saturday community orientation program. The new initiative, which involves a variety of localities scattered throughout the Pioneer Valley, will introduce new students to a wide array of activities and people.

In all, 29 sites are involved. A fleet of rented buses, College vehicles, and private cars will transport foreign fellows, Frances Perkins scholars, and traditional first-year students for six hours of off-campus activities. Mostly community service projects along with a few recreational pursuits, activities include a Holyoke afterschool program, Amherst and Holyoke soup kitchens, Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary, Habitat for Humanity, and the Food Bank Farm. Travel within the region will range as far north as Ashfield and Buckland (home of College founder Mary Lyon); as far west as Cummington, a small hilltown in the area; as far south as Springfield; and as far east as the Quabbin Reservoir, the large body of water that supplies eastern Massachusetts with its drinking water.

Students will bond with one another in small groups of 8 to 10 and learn about the region as they rollerblade through Hadley on the bike trail that runs from Northampton to Pelham, canoe the Connecticut River with members of the South Hadley Police Department, or participate in one of 22 community service projects that range from cleaning up playgrounds in Springfield's innercity to exercising stray dogs at the Dakin Animal Shelter in Leverett.

"All activities will locate students within the greater community, as each project is designed to introduce students to some of the rich resources and opportunities available in the region," Melhorn says. "The Pioneer Valley is a special place affording a rare mix of nature and culture. The planning committee for Second* Saturday, which includes faculty, staff, students and alumnae, hopes that Mount Holyoke students will start off with a better sense of where they are through this new program."

Each student will set off with a mini-map of western Massachusetts, a souvenir water bottle, and a brown bag lunch. Volunteers, drawn from the upper-class student body, college staff and faculty, and local Mount Holyoke alumnae, will guide the groups.

Response to the new program has been overwhelmingly positive. The College received more than 350 registrations from an initial mailing of 650 letters.

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