Saturday, September 29, 2012

What orientation is like at Columbia Business School


One thing that I had always wanted to be while at CBS was a Peer Advisor (“PA”).  Although there are over 100+ clubs on-campus, I really wanted to be a part of the Peer Advising club. I was nervous because it was an application/interview process.  In general, it’s a highly selective program with a lot of interest from students.  Luckily, I was accepted!  Over 120 people applied and they took ~60 of us.  Being a peer advisor meant that you helped  lead orientation week for new students and you answer questions/give advice throughout the semester.  About 3 weeks ago, we had orientation week and it was THE best experience that I have ever had at school.  I cannot stress how much fun I had during that one week and how close that I got to my PA team. 

As a Peer Advisor, we’re assigned to a team of 7-8 people. Our PA team then gets a cluster and we get to come up with a cluster theme (ours was bandits), flare, room decorations, ice breakers, etc.  My team  consisted of “Hold-em up” Hayley, Sara “the Aggressor”,  Zach “Sneaky Keats”, “Under the radar” Niv, Magnus “the Magnum Menace”, ”Risky Business” Rahul,  “Room Raider” Rishita, and Matt “Mean Mug Jennings”.  We were assigned cluster B and came up with bandit names .  The picture below is our team.  



PA week starts with a weekend training (Fri-Sun). On Sunday, we decorated our “homeroom” which is essentially a classroom where our cluster met for 2 hours a day.  We each got to present to them a topic on academics, clubs, honor code, etc.  Rahul and I presented clubs. 
I think what I really enjoyed was meeting new people and bonding with Cluster B and my PA team.  One of my goals this year was to be more social and meet new people. During my first year, I kept hanging out with the same girls, who are my besties at school.  At the same time, I realized that I needed to meet more people.  Our cluster is amazing. Everyone is super nice. During orientation week, we played ice breakers so the cluster could get to know each other such as speed dating, never have I ever, etc.
Also, my PA team was SO MUCH FUN. We had the most inside jokes compared to all of the other PA teams. We’re all on groupme and we just joke back and forth on it.  Also, everyone is just crazy and ridiculous as you can see from our pictures below. 



The best event though had taken place on a Wednesday.  We had a very nice dinner at the Light House at Chelsea Piers and went bowling afterwards. Although it’s just not any ordinary bowling alley. Hardly anyone bowled and we just turned it into a dance party instead.  All of the clusters were there: Cluster A-H. If you add all the clusters, their respective PA teams and significant others, we  probably had ~500+ people. Needless to say, everyone was exhausted and hung over on Thursday morning. Yet, despite how tired we were, we were still cheering and smiling. Now, one thing about orientation week…every morning, students are greeted by PAs dressed in costumes.  We stand on the steps in front of Uris Hall (our business school building) yelling, screaming and dancing.  This was us on Thursday morning (check out YouTube video below) even after a night of partying and  drinking. 






No comments:

Post a Comment