Four years ago in 2010 when I arrived at Mississippi State University, 8,000 miles away from home, it was my first time traveling outside India. I was 17 then.
After a 32-hour-long transit, I found myself in a new country with completely different traditions, culture and education system. Although we love Hollywood movies and eating at McDonald’s and KFC in India, it was a fairly overwhelming experience.
My first interaction at MSU, like most others, was with the people at the office of admissions and scholarships. I applied to six universities across the United States and was admitted in every one of them, but the primary motivation of coming to MSU was the interaction I had with Anna O’Nan at the admissions office through weekly webinars.
The reason to write this article is because Tage Philamlee has fairly misrepresented an outstanding venture most likely due to personal lapses and poor time management. The language used was overly harsh or, if I may say, derogatory to the orientation leaders who work tirelessly to produce a good show on orientation day.
In her opening statements, Philamlee points out she received a sheet with opinions on what to do. An opinion sheet and an instruction sheet are two different things. Getting an ID made may take the ITS office around 15 minutes, but you can concede. The rush could have been heavier on orientation day, which caused Philamlee to miss a few events.
In her following few paragraphs, Philamlee said the orientation leaders could have done a better job and were not seen on the first day of class. I beg to differ as the orientation leaders are students who have classes on their first day.
To be an orientation leader, the selection process is competitive and a number of different aspects of a student are closely examined. The student then goes through a concentrated course, which prepares them to lead an orientation session. To believe they were ineffective and not up to the mark can only be a great hyperbole in a poem.
I would like Philamlee to explain what took her an hour and 45 minutes to find Miss. Highway 12, and if she could, reenact that for me. A fairly simple step could have been rolling down her car window and asking someone for directions.
Imagine coming from India where you have lived 16 years of your life calling halls as buildings, streets as roads, eggplants as brinjals, french fries as finger chips, yogurt as curd, soccer as football, neighborhood as colony, driveways as place to park, parkways as place to drive and parcel for to-go.
In Philamlee’s scheme of things, I should have expected the orientation leaders to have a list of literal translations to all of these and many more to be handed out or explained on my first day of class.
Orientation leaders can only act as a guiding force; settling into MSU is just like moving into another city. Will there be orientation leaders when you move to New York City and get your dream job? No, but there will be a map like there was in your orientation packet. The fact that there are students who are willing to contribute and give back to the university in the form of service to prospective students is a matter of high appreciation.
I have seen everyone associated with orientation work as a team. The first members to arrive on orientation day get there at 4 a.m. Months of preparation and planning go into putting up an event like orientation, and I assure you the first people to take note of her article were from the orientation office. For more information on the orientation, visit admissions.msstate.edu/orientation where details on what toiletries to bring, what to wear and what to expect are outlined in detail.
