Currently week two...I feel so weird doing this in front of other people.
Like, I literally....ahhh!
*music*
Howdy y'all! My name is Shan Cawley. I'm
currently a senior English major here at
WVU and for the summer I'm also an
Orientation leader.
So, today I'm going to take you through what it's like to be an Orientation leader
and also what it's like to be a student who's going through Orientation.
Essentially what I want to do is focus
on first-generation
students, I'm one there's a lot of other
Orientation leaders that are one and the
the incoming freshman class is the highest
percent of first-generation students
that WVU has ever seen. So, let's get into it!
*music*
There we go.. *laughter*
Hi Shan
Alright y'all, so we are currently going
to our student, oh God, student, our
student one-on-one presentations where
we kind of each the incoming students to
kind of be Mountaineers and what our
values are. Yee-haw.
*music*
And this is where we will be presenting.
Y'all these are some of our wonderful presenters.
Maggie Thompson one of my favorite people ever.
Mr. Mendes nice to meet you.
Please,  no cameras.
*laughter*
So, what do you want incoming freshmen to know about kind of like being a first-gen student?
It can be
overwhelming.
Especially financial aid, that's usually a
concern for first-generation students,
meeting people, college classes, like am
I smart enough? That's one of the
challenges I think alot of first-gen students face.
Even if you're anxious, even if you think it's not going to be okay,
everything works out in the end. And if it doesn't, then it's not the end.
Dylan, you're a star! Thank you.
All right, so right now we are welcoming
all of our new Mountaineers. We have some
discussion questions with our presentation
which we use to kind of interact with
the students a little bit and they're
doing really great!
Probably my favorite thing about this
university is that it gives you every
opportunity to reinvent yourself and be
the best version of yourself and I urge
you to all take advantage of that to the
fullest extent.
*cheering*
*singing Country Roads*
All right, so now we are in our academic
sessions with our parents, this kind of
gives everyone a feel for the college
they're going into and it also kind of gives
them an opportunity to see if they want
to change their major. I know that when I
came here I changed my major within
kind of like the first year so this
gives students and parents an
opportunity to see what the next year is
going to be like and what they should
expect.
*music*
So what is your favorite thing about
being a first-gen?
My thing is the learning experience. I came from a good home.
I came from a good home.
I learned about myself, I learned how to be myself
but at the same time college
opened up a whole different world to me.
That's one thing about being a first-gen
is that I'm here learning to teach
myself things. It's like I'm learning what I'm capable of, my strengths,
my weaknesses, all on my own and that's
making me a whole better person than
getting advice.
I also wiped out. *laughter*
*cheering*
Alright guys, so I just wanted to take a second to
kind of wrap this whole vlog up and kind
of talk about my own experience as a
first-generation college student.
So my mother wasn't able to attend college
because she couldn't afford it, my father
also only went to college for a semester
because he couldn't afford it, so
thankfully I was born into a generation
that kind of allowed me to get a lot of
funding like the Higher Education Grant,
the Pell Grant.
I remember coming orientation and,
you know, meeting other orientation
leaders and some of my other peers
during that time really kind of
solidified why I wanted to go to college.
It made me really excited. I know I
connected with a lot of the people that
I went to Orientation with. If you're a
first-generation student out there who's
really nervous about coming to WVU or
just going to any other college, I want
you to know that it's gonna be okay.
You're going to be alright. You have to
give it your best shot and you kind of
have to let any fear go and just roll
with it, I know that's what I did and it
made my experience all for the better. And here at WVU you have a family of 30,000
people, even if you don't know all of
them, everyone is here for each other
and I think that's all that matters.
*music*
*singing*
