The First Fortnight

Now that MSMS has been in session a couple of weeks, it might be a good idea to reflect on things that really worked well during this orientation and indoctrination period, and which things still need improvement. Praise and criticize constructively. Reflect on both the academic and residence life aspects of our program. Note as well that admin read suggestions from last year and incorporated them into this year’s orientation.

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28 Responses to The First Fortnight

  1. Nicolas Neal says:

    I’m not sure which purpose the seniors’ attendance of the juniors’ meetings served. The meetings didn’t seem productive for the juniors either, though I’ll remark that it isn’t important. I wouldn’t be surprised nor bothered if the same superficial meetings occurred next year and the years after. No one has much else to do and while the content of most meetings isn’t paramount, the meetings force gatherings that allow people to meet each other. Of course, there are more entertaining or fruitful ways to accomplish this end, but this is my last concern for MSMS. Everything was fine and dandy.

  2. Everything worked well during orientation. However, I feel like all the students , juniors and seniors should have been together during orientation. I don’t really know the seniors like that because we haven’t spent as much time together. Everything was organized, and well put together. The meetings were great , because it allowed the juniors to meet one another and get to know things. There are a diversity of people here, which some people are not probably used to because their old school didn’t have different people. So, the meeting were great because it got us to meet different kind of people.

  3. Elijah Camba says:

    I think that the orientation experience was different for juniors and seniors. Seniors don’t have to deal with audacious campus tours or seminars. The juniors have to go through all that, though from what I hear from them, they were extremely tiring rather than informative. I never quite recalled orientation week being this tiring during my junior year. We had the usuals such as the block parties, and karaoke, both of which I believe we had a lot more fun this year than in my junior year. However, I do miss the waterslides.
    My only complaint about the orientation was the Mental Health seminar, where nearly 20 seniors left. I wish they did it better, because last year, the seminar was a lot more interactive and open-minded, instead of a boring lecture.
    Though, the biggest improvement was the juniors. I’ll give them the credit for being better than us seniors when we were juniors. Sorry, not sorry class of 2023, but class of 2024 has us beat by a mile.

  4. Victoria West says:

    Many parts of orientation week, in my opinion, were informative and answered a lot of concerns I was unaware I had. However, I did find that some events were quite monotonous. Many of the seminars lacked attention-grabbing features that left the students to doze off. As almost all of the juniors have not had experience to walking all over campus, it became easy for students to not focus on the speaker(s) once they arrived to the seminar. Information that was more relevant to some subjects often made its way into other subjects, leaving the info repetitive. Lastly, I found the icebreaker events to be useless. When we had to break into groups, the result was always one of two ways. Either the juniors would go with their personal friend groups, or they would be placed into a group of awkward silence. Neither of these necessarily helped to break the ice, but rather wasted time that could have been a free time, which I’m sure many juniors would have appreciated. Overall, the week was not bad for me, but as stated, I would make these changes to please the next incoming class.

  5. Ava Noe says:

    I, personally, feel that orientation received a 3 1/2 stars across the entire student body. The meetings were long and tiresome, but I will agree with others when I say they were crucial in creating friendships in a place that is new to us all. Most of us have been ostracized in our home school for our differences yet here we are encouraged to come together. MSMS has done an amazing job at this I just wish some of the events had done a better job at catering to us instead of feeling like fake friendships that last ten minutes. I would suggest team building exercises or friendly competitions. All in all, I feel our perspective junior class will enjoy their first two weeks at MSMS.

    • John Robert Walker says:

      MSMS orientation week was a lot. Many events/seminars were not necessary, and seemed to be packed in to keep us busy. I agree with what Victoria said about the information becoming redundant. In the opening emissary panel, most of the topics for the week were covered. This led to boring and repetitive info sessions for the rest of the week. I do think the events allowed students to interact with new peers and make friends, but cutting back on the information sessions would be nice.

  6. George Utz says:

    For some reason, seniors had to attend many of the meetings intended for juniors. While a refresher of the information in these meetings was useful and appreciated, this refresher did not need to come in the form of a reintroduction. The meetings regarding college applications and transcripts were very useful, but they did not need to be as long as they were. All in all, I found myself frustrated with orientation week, as it felt like a repetition of last year’s.

  7. Ashton Lollis says:

    I liked that all of those who returned from to the MSMS was very energetic and had an impact on all of us juniors. The information that was shown to us was very straightforward and there wasn’t any sugar-coating. What I do think that they need to improve on is the repetitiveness of this information. I went to too many groups and I kept hearing the same thing over and over again. I feel like residential like is great because I got to meet many of my friends here. I also think that the academic part of this school can be stressful at times but I will be able to make it if I keep studying.

  8. Kelvin Pool says:

    There was a lot of information all at once and I would kind of appreciate a grade-free quiz to see how much I actually remember. It also felt like everything happened right then and I had to think about a new school, studying, and not missing things all at the same time. Honestly, I would have just appreciated if everything happened much slower around here.

  9. Bill Arnoldus says:

    The meetings wasted a lot of time and didn’t seem to be organized. They could have taken half as long and been twice as effective at getting their point across. Certain meetings just seemed redundant for the seniors to attend. I did appreciate the time I spent making friends.

  10. Bryanna Boggs says:

    In my opinion, orientation week was repetitive and time was not appropriately managed. Although it was fun to have so many opportunities to meet new people, the meetings, or seminars, all practically had the same prompts and there were times when we released 30min early and others when we didn’t have the time to cover everything needed. Also, I felt as a collective, that by the end of orientation week we were exhausted and not retaining the information given to us. However, fun events such as karaoke, movie night, and the block party definitely made up for it a little bit.

  11. Avery McMechan says:

    The fact that the seniors were required to go to orientation meetings and sessions served no real purpose, we’d already lived here and understood all of the key points to campus life. If something big had changed over the summer maybe that would have been a good reason but I have yet to notice any real changes. That being said I do think it’s fair that seniors attend Ceremony of Lights just because seniors always have, but I think seniors should be let out before the juniors. Other than that the only real complaint I had was the fact that everybody’s Rezlife reservations for Frazer rooms got messed up because of the emissaries all having to be moved around, and the presence of female RA’s shut down an entire quarter of the capacity of Frazer, maybe just have the emissaries move into their perspective rooms from the start, and maybe not shut down the entire floor.

  12. Atticus Ross says:

    While orientation felt disjointed at some points, I really felt like many of the trainings were necessary. We were told information more than once which caused to to feel “repetative” but yet since we are taking in so much information at once I felt like it really helped me nail that info into my brain. I’ve heard last year was even tougher when the now seniors, first arrived as juniors so I’m happy that more time was added to the orientation schedule this year. I believe it was a good introduction to MSMS, but I think the most fun part was the parts of the schedule where students were allowed to communicate, so if I were to give any suggestions I would say more active time to learn and meet fellow peers.

  13. Jacob Neal says:

    The Orientation Week at MSMS was informative somewhat however most of what they said could be answered by thinking about how normal people would act in the proposed situation. Also every time a questionary period happened the questions asked were some of the worst things I ever heard come out of someone’s mouth before like they had been designed by scientists to make me roll my eyes the hardest, however it is easy to fix this by simply getting rid of all Q&A sessions because people can just figure these things out and if they don’t they will finally no longer to contribute to our shared gene pool.

  14. Max Feng says:

    I enjoyed some aspects of orientation week. The week helped me get a feel of the campus and what is expected of us in certain situations. I especially enjoyed the half days as they allowed me to have a smoother transition from my summer life to my school life. However, some of the meetings started to feel redundant, and because of this, I started to get very tired toward the end of the week. I feel like it would have been a better use of time to create more events to get to know other students.

  15. Kinsley Hendricks says:

    I feel as if orientation week was nice, but really repetitive. They repeated things over and over to the point of where it seemed like they just wanted a way to keep us juniors busy. I do wish that the orientation week was more interactive, considering the fact that it was really boring at some points and just made people fall asleep. I did like the fact that I got to interact with some of my classmates during certain parts of orientation, so I think MSMS needs more of that rather than just telling us a lot of stuff all at once.

  16. Kinsley Collum says:

    I think that orientation was helpful but overwhelming. After all the sessions were over, I found myself forgetting all the rules they said. I think instead of long speech sessions, they should make sessions shorter and more engaging. If they would have sent out a powerpoint with all the most important rules and information, then just summed it up in the session, I would have liked it better. Although, some parts of orientation were really informative and good for meeting people. I also like that we eased into classes. Starting with half days of school helped me transition from summer to school much easier. Overall, orientation was good just maybe counterproductive in some areas.

  17. Geethika Polepalli says:

    Overall, orientation was helpful and informative, but it was overwhelming. For the juniors, the most important thing for them was learning where their classes were and what buildings to go into but none of that was learned during orientation. For the seniors, it was not beneficial for us to go to junior meetings regarding subjects such as wellness and sign-outs which we definitely know about and have an understanding of. I think the seniors’ orientation needed to be more based on information about college and graduation and about what has changed on campus from last year such as the printers. Overall, I think if orientation was more informative about the academics and res life aspects of MSMS and not centered on subjects such as diversity and inclusion then it would have been more smooth. Even though diversity and inclusion are important topics to talk about at a school like ours, they can be talked about after classes get into full swing.

  18. Zayde Williams says:

    Overall orientation week was great but it did get a little repetitive. Such as the meetings about wellness and res life because as a senior we already knew these things and it was kind of boring to sit through them. The karaoke night, bingo, talent show, and block party were fun just very crowded. Also last year I liked having normal class schedules during the first week and not the short ones. With the short ones we just couldn’t get much done.

  19. Laykin Dixon says:

    I feel like orientation was the most boring week of my life. It was very exhausting to go from meeting to meeting to meeting. I feel like they should have more enjoyment associated with orientation week rather than it just being very boring. You can learn the rules and everything and still it being enjoyable rather than just being so not. Also anything I “learned” at orientation honestly I didn’t learn because once it came down to it I still had no clue where to go for classes, how to sign out or anything like that I would always have to ask a senior or staff.

  20. Gracyn Young says:

    I think that I can speak for almost everyone, at least the junior class, that there were many unanswered questions and a bit of worry about the unknown when we first arrived. Thankfully, orientation allowed us to get those questions answered; however, it felt as the week went by, they became redundant. I feel as if the time would have been better spent by allowing us to socialize personally, rather than in a forced setting. That combined with the lack of free time made orientation week feel boring and borderline stressful, having to navigate being away from home with a bunch of strangers.

  21. Jacqueline Smith says:

    Some parts of orientation where repetitive, but some parts where more effective than others. For example, no one took much away from having to introduce themselves whole-group by tossing ball with questions written on it, but I did like when our orientation group was split into regions of Mississippi because we had something to relate to.
    There was also a seminar that was supposed to cover traditions. This part of orientation did nothing because the teachers essentially told us everything was a secret and that people like Halloween. They could have said something about weekly Wednesday door prizes, or anything specific. Instead, we talked about the other seminars. I liked the man who went over wellness at Stark, and that whole tour was fun.
    Orientation class schedule was pretty messy. Admin should have given us a schedule with regular and orientation times. To my understanding, our parents were given orientation schedule, but we weren’t or the information was very difficult to find.
    Overall, I don’t remember anything other that where the buildings are. The most useful information was how to use the database, and opening hours of the different facilities. They probably needed to put more emphasis on this than forced socialization.

  22. Gordon Welch says:

    Orientation gets the point across about how MSMS works pretty well. They tell you what you can and can’t do so that if something happens then there are no excuses. My only complaints, none major, are some of the things they made the seniors do. I was in orientation sessions that we had already gone through as juniors. It felt like they were trying to pass time instead of letting us go. Besides that, orientation wasn’t bad, just busy. Academic and residence life is the same as usual, a lot of work that you either enjoy or force yourself to do while enjoying time with your friends in the residence halls.

  23. Kadie Van says:

    As an emissary and a senior, I got to see both sides or Junior and Senior orientation. Some of the senior orientation was repetitive such as what to do in the dorms, curfews, and what is expected out of each student. However, some things were helpful such as meetings about graduation or the ice breakers to get the seniors back into the role of the social life. The junior orientation did a good job in informing the students what to expect during the year and explaining how imposter syndrome might happen. I believe there is improvement in how the information could be presented. Personally, I would like to be more interactive with all of the activities planned. The mental health seminar was the worse. I believe that should be removed as it was not considerate of those who had gone through troubled times.

  24. Mira Patel says:

    Orientation week for seniors seemed a bit repetitive especially since we went through the same sessions the previous year. I believe that the meetings regarding wellness, curfew, and privilege plans were the more repetitive ones, while the seminars for security and safety along with rules and regulation were more necessary as they reiterated many important topics. Other than this, orientation week was great! I especially liked the seminars where juniors and seniors were able to interact and get to know one another better. I feel like this is an important part of Orientation week that should carry on into the future because it allows juniors and seniors to get to know each other and ask important questions that can be beneficial for their future. On the other hand, I agree with many of the entries listed above that criticize the “mental health” seminar. It was nothing of the sort, with talks about many sensitive topics with the lack of a warning beforehand. I think that if MSMS wants to conduct a mental health seminar, they should rename it by calling it mental wellness instead. They should talk about healthy ways to cope with mental health and allow students to interact in the seminar by doing things such as listening to music, meditating, and creating art. This may be more beneficial and also offer some comfort to students as they go into the new school year.

  25. Kermit Oville says:

    As a junior who attended pathways, I believe orientation and indoctrination period was great overall, but for me, who has already gone through the process of finding and seeing most of the structures and building, it was truly tiring. I think that the admin should give the kids who went to pathways the choice to be grouped in with their fellow classmates, except for the specified meetings, or let them choose to be in a separate group with their fellow pathways peers. Overall the time period was great it was well worked and thought out. Most of the emissaries seem like great people. Throughout the residence side of MSMS I love the freedom we, as students, get with our rooms that are up to our roommates and us.

  26. Adalberto Estrella says:

    Orientation was overall was alright. the way that we only had half class length days gave a decent understanding of what a school day was going to be like. The thing that made orientation week almost unbearable was the amount of seminars we had to go to. I went to pathways so I already knew how almost everything worked and the whole week I spent just there. Next year, kids that went to pathways should get the choice to go to the seminars because everything that we went over we learned at pathways.

  27. Noah Lee says:

    I’m posting this in September, and well over a month has passed since MSMS’s orientation week. And, honestly, being this far removed from the event has allowed me to see that the week is actually not that important. It’s fun and all, and we get to initiate relationships with friends who will maintain us through later seasons, but at the end of the day scarcely anything from orientation has affected my daily life at MSMS. Now, this isn’t to say that we should begin to completely neglect this week, but it’s also important to realize that orientation week is only a small, fragmentary representation of the months and years to come. If I were to implement changes into orientation week, I would streamline the schedule and make sure that nonvital presentation information was not constantly repeated. I felt like we had a lot of little 45-minute long gaps in the schedule, which was really annoying while I was in the process of adapting to student life. Overall, I felt orientation was fun, but I feel like they can improve the schedule a bit.

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