By Abby Rathburn | Staff Writer
While fall semester approaches, excitement is building across Baylor as students and faculty prepare to welcome the newest class of Bears.
Welcome Week, run by New Student Programs, is a series of events and activities for new students to participate in as they transition into college.
The week offers a wide range of experiences for students, including academic open houses, residence hall traditions, local food trucks and a candlelight worship service. The climax of Welcome Week comes on Saturday, Aug. 22 with The Big Event: a night of live music, crafts, karaoke, outdoor activities and build-your-own bear.
Freshmen are also placed in a small group with other students from their residence hall, led by an older student. During the event, they will have small group time and attend an academic convocation at the Ferrell Center and a spirit rally at Foster Pavilion.
Jesse Ross, lead coordinator for welcome experiences, said Welcome Week is designed to be a family experience, with events like Family Weekend and football games continually “serving as an invitation to students and their families.”
Ross and his coworkers began planning Welcome Week in the spring, making adjustments from past years. While the week has stayed consistent over the years, a new leadership role will allow Welcome Week leaders to continue supporting their groups beyond the first week.
“Essentially, this is an extended welcome and leader role where student leaders will sign up to serve a new student group during Welcome Week, and they will stay with that group through the first half of the fall semester,” Ross said. “We think that is a good bridge into this semester to maintain those relationships and the support provided for incoming new students.”
North Richland Hills sophomore Kinlee Castillo is serving as a Welcome Week Leader this year. She is excited to be a part of this new mentor program to continue the friendships she began as a Line Camp leader.
“At the start line camp this summer, I was learning to incorporate God in the way I lead, not just leading with a heart, but also leading with God’s heart and God’s hand next to me,” Castillo said.
Along with the new mentor role, New Student Programs continues to update parts of the Welcome Week schedule. For instance, what is now the Waco Welcome, featuring numerous local businesses, used to be an outdoor picnic.
“We actually used to host a large family picnic for any new students and their families on both of those move-in days, but because it’s hot in August in Texas, and sometimes we would just get thunderstorms rolling through, so we had to think differently about this event,” Ross said.
According to President Linda Livingston in her Aug. 6th Presidential Perspective, this year’s Waco Welcome will likely top 2,000 guests, not including students.
In order for Welcome Week to be possible, there are approximately 300 student and faculty volunteers. All of these individuals are committed to making Baylor a second home for these incoming students.
“This is an opportunity to make new friends and to lean into the Baylor community, and so I think just really having an open mind and allowing it to do what it is made to do, which is, like, to connect you more with other people that are in the exact same scenario as you are,” Castillo said.
Seguin sophomore Alexa Vargas said that as a Welcome Week leader, she hopes these new students take advantage of the week to the fullest, even though it is not mandatory.
“I think that doing it helped me get a little more comfortable being uncomfortable and putting myself in situations to meet new people because they’re going to be doing that all year and for the rest of their lives,” Vargas said.
These very relationships that Vargas advises new students to build are echoed in the overall mission of Welcome Week.
“The relationships that are formed are actually the biggest, most important thing from Welcome Week, and our events are just hoping to facilitate that as these students are arriving,” Ross said.
