Freshmen e-orientation: Reflections of student organisers

Freshmen orientation programmes are important milestones of university life. In Dentistry, orientation helps build camaraderie and friendship among the small undergraduate student enrolment. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, freshmen orientation featured overnight camps, mass games and group activities which involved face-to-face interactions. With the pandemic, precautionary measures were put in place to curb the spread of the virus. A key measure was the radical move away from face-to-face activities. This had a profound impact on the conduct of the orientation programme in Dentistry. The authors share their experiences as student organisers of a first-ever online freshmen orientation programme (involving 72 freshmen and 60 seniors), and highlight key lessons gleaned from the experience.

A Program to Establish Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors with Freshmen Students

The freshmen transition is a crucial time when students make health choices in their physical activities, eating behaviors, and stress management skills. A consortium of student affairs staff created and implemented an introduction to the wellness program through freshmen orientation classes. The program included a health behaviors assessment, educational resources, and interventions for individual lifestyle change process. This article presents baseline health behaviors of the first-semester freshmen and the statistical results of the changes that occurred with students receiving the interventions. Implications are discussed that provide a template for how to implement and sustain this type of program.