A group of the most outgoing and enthusiastic students on campus traveled to Tennessee this past weekend to display their Tiger spirit and work on their orientation and recruiting skills.
Forty-seven of the LSU Ambassadors shared their orientation skills with other schools. The workshop was good preparation for Spring Testing, which is March 24 – 27.
The Southern Regional Orientation Workshop is a convention of orientation leaders from the Southeast. The workshop took place March 5 – 7 at the University of Tennessee.
“We told the members who applied for the committee that it is a learning experience for everyone,” said Chloe Wiley, SROW chairperson and mass communication junior.
The main aspect of the convention is presentations, said Sonja Ardoin, a secondary education senior. The University brought five presentations, which different ambassadors presented.
The presentations the Ambassadors gave included “Kick It Up a Notch,” which was about adding spice with culture and traditions, recruiting more males into volunteer organizations, “Branding Your Organization,” which was about creating a name and overall purpose for an organization — individuality while promoting group unity — and “Spa,” which was about taking care of yourself and how not to get burned out.
Wiley said 75 universities from Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky attended the convention.
The leaders who attended were given the opportunity to gain new ideas for orientation from each other to take back to their own schools.
Trey Smith, a political science and communication studies junior, said he benefited from listening to presentations about how to make out-of-state students feel welcome. He also learned about how having a parent orientation for freshman students could assist parents in learning how to make the adjustment of having a child in college.
The convention consisted of several competitions including banner, spirit, cheer
and song. The University placed second in the song competition.
“The competitions were a lot of fun,” said Stacie Stewart, an early child education freshman. “It was my first time to go, so I was nervous, but it paid off because we all came together as a group — all 47 of us. It was a great chance to get to know people from LSU and other schools that I would have never met otherwise.”
Wiley said all LSU Ambassadors are allowed to apply for the committee. She said 80 Ambassadors applied
to be on the SROW committee, but only 47 were chosen.
Each applicant is interviewed and then selected based on
dedication and leadership skills.
While some of the Ambassadors were on the trip for the first time, others returned to share the experience again. “This was my third year to go, and it’s a great chance to represent LSU,” Ardoin said.
The committee has a lot of dedication, so the University always is one of the top schools in attendance, Wiley said. The members were required to meet every Sunday since November for four hours to work on everything.
“This has been my third year attending SROW, and the respect and admiration that other schools have for LSU and our group increases every year,” said Angela Trumbaturi, general studies senior.
The Ambassadors have attended SROW since 1991, Wiley said.