Last month, incoming students were welcomed through our annual orientation. Only this year, due to COVID-19, Innis Orientation was held entirely through online synchronous programming. The Orientation Executive Team worked throughout the summer to prepare for the event. Under the leadership of the Orientation Coordinators, Al-Amin Ahamed and Breanna Lima Martinez, the team was able to work together to make orientation the success that it was. One of the executives, Winsy Leung, commented on the way her sub-committee worked to ensure student engagement: “We focused on social media posts and giveaways for promotions!” She also added that, “Even with all the planning and preparation we were still worried that students wouldn’t attend, or that it would be really hard for students to socialize. But it turns out, having events online actually allowed first years to interact with other incoming students and the orientation team more!” 

This year’s orientation theme was “IN Your Element.” The students, leaders, and executives were split into the four elements: earth, fire, water and air. The events had titles based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise;the opening ceremonies were titled, “The Boy in the Iceberg” and the game was titled, “The Boy Who Cried Wolfbat,” which is a play on the game title “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Students were able to earn points for their element during many of the activities, which added an additional level of engagement from the first-year students. At the end of orientation, Earth, the element with the most points, earning 2006, was announced and celebrated by everyone. What was especially exciting about this year’s point system was that the difference between the first place and fourth place teams was only 195 points. This goes to show how involved all of the attending first-year students were throughout orientation.  

Despite the challenge of having to reformat orientation to fit an online setting, the orientation team did an excellent job of planning events that were exciting and engaging. Many events that are traditionally held every year, such as the academic panels and clubs fair, were still able to run successfully online. The anonymous nature of comments and questions made the panel events more engaging than in the past. Herald’s House, which is usually held in the form of an open mic night, was held in collaboration with Woodsworth College, and was altered so that students could submit videos of themselves performing any talent they wanted. This allowed there to be much more variety in the participants, with students singing, playing instruments, and baking, among other talents. The comment section was full of students hyping up each submission. The orientation team also came up with new events that fit the online format well. Events such as a speech and quiz show game hosted by keynote speaker Adam Growe from Cash Cab Canada, and “University: What a Drag!?”, the Q&A event with contestants from Drag Race Canada, were exciting new additions to the schedule.  

Although it was different from past years in many ways, online orientation was widely considered to be a success. One first year student, Jake Pereira, said, “I was genuinely surprised at how well put together and organized the whole thing was. Stuff like wolverine and bingo were actually really fun (plus we got a lot of free stuff and I love free stuff). I made a few friends through orientation as well, so I think that means it was an overall success.” Kassie Neckles, one of the Orientation Captains, said, “While this orientation was unprecedented in its mode of operation and was largely remote, it was no less interactive and fun. I think the fact that the events were able to run so smoothly despite none of us actually seeing each other in person is a testament of the true spirit and hospitable nature of the Innis College community.”  

Winsy Leung also commented on the outcome of orientation, saying, “I thought it went super well considering it was the first ever online orientation that we had to plan. There was a lot of brainstorming between the executives on how to get students to engage and actually attend the online orientation… it turns out, having events online actually allowed first years to interact with other incoming students and the orientation team more! I think it is because when orientation is in person, incoming students mostly interact with people in their group, while the [executives] work mostly behind the scenes. I noticed that students were more willing to socialize through chat or using their mic. Overall I think the turnout for orientation was amazing and it’s great to see all our hard work paid off at the end.” 

Al-Amin Ahamed, one of the Orientation Coordinators, commented on the experience of planning orientation this year, saying, “Orientation posed some unique challenges this year, not only in its unprecedented nature but also in its unpredictability. Having to structure a new executive team, develop a Quercus course shell and transition into a completely online experience was completely new and daunting to us at first. However, all of this was a good learning opportunity that taught us the importance of working as a team, making difficult decisions, and developing strong branding. While not under ideal circumstances, orientation was quite successful as we were able to experiment with a bunch of different events that ended up paying off. With over 200 participants, our quiz show with Adam Growe was entertaining and set the tone for an interactive and engaging online experience. Integrating drag superstars from Canada’s Drag Race was also quite effective and included a representation that had never been featured at Innis Orientation in the past. This year was definitely filled with a lot of firsts, but it certainly did not lack in excitement and engagement with the incoming students.”  

Overall, Innis’ first ever virtual orientation went extremely well, thanks to the hard work of the Orientation Coordinators, the Executive Team, the Captains and Leaders, Innis College staff members, and, of course, the first-years who attended and participated. Although orientation was quite different than it was in previous years, it was still an amazing event.