One thing is guaranteed for the beginning of every school year at Ramaz: the arrival of a new batch of students, freshmen with knowledge-hungry eyes and confused faces. And with each incoming class, there is orientation, a normally two-day extravaganza which welcomes the new students and shows just how thrilling High School can be. 

But, this year the experience was cut down to one-half-day, a Friday, limiting the number of activities time would allow, leaving the Freshman yearning for information not given due to the cuts, and the rest of the school wondering why this year’s class wouldn’t get the same orientation they did.

From an in-and-out of school scavenger hunt to get to know your grade Bingo, the shortened day definitely hit the nail on the head on the fun part, but the real question is whether they were or were not able to properly prepare the freshmen for the year to come. 

A random assortment of twenty freshmen were polled on their views of orientation. Four said it was very helpful, five said it wasn’t, and eleven said it was moderately helpful, giving them some insight, but not enough.

However, a shortened orientation not only limits the amount of information the freshmen get, but also limits the time the new class has to meet one another. One of the focal points of this day is to meet the kids who will make up your grade, who will become your friends, your classmates, and with the abbreviated day they were left without the sufficient amount of time to do so. 

Despite this, the day didn’t completely fall flat. The students had enormous grins on their faces, got a tour of the school and the area around them, and had a delicious breakfast and social time. 

Out of the four main activities, breakfast was overwhelmingly popular. While students loved bingo, the scavenger hunt, and their advisory meetings, the general consensus was that breakfast, where the grade got to interact for the first time, was the best part of the day. 

All in all, things were definitely lost by the shortened orientation, but it was still an experience Ramaz’s newest grade is unlikely to forget.