Among Emory student orientation leaders, James Grant has a common story.
When he first arrived on the Atlanta campus in 2022, the four years in front of him seemed exciting but daunting. He was energized by move-in day and enjoyed spending time with his orientation group. But, in a broader sense, he didn’t know where or how to begin life as a college student.
“I was especially nervous, as someone from Kentucky, to meet all these people from all over the United States and the world,” says Grant, a senior chemistry major. “But orientation was a low-stakes, low-pressure environment where I could make connections with other people and learn about life at Emory. And I became an orientation leader because I wanted to replicate that feeling for others.”
Each year, orientation week at Emory is full of exciting events and time-honored traditions that welcome incoming students to their new communities on the Atlanta and Oxford campuses. The week kicks off with move-in day — Friday, Aug. 22, for Oxford College and Saturday, Aug. 23, for Emory College — and continues through the first day of classes on Aug. 27.
Other highlights include a Coke Toast on the respective campus quads; Songfest, a beloved annual karaoke and dance contest among Emory College first-year students; and the Oxford Olympics, a field day of spirited competition among Oxford orientation groups.
Orientation leaders spend months training to guide new students through these memorable activities and the many important moments in between.
This will be Grant’s third year in the orientation leadership program and his first as one of nine coordinators who train the rest of the group. In all, this year’s team includes more than 100 leaders to assist Emory’s largest-ever incoming class and their families.
Kainat Mitha, associate director of orientation and transition programs in the Office of Student Involvement, Leadership & Transitions, runs the training courses. She says the energy that leaders and coordinators bring to orientation week is “electric” and that this year’s diverse group will help new students feel at ease and set up for success.
“We have a mix of introverts and extroverts, and they are each hardworking, humble and enthusiastic,” she says. “Our system is designed to welcome all different kinds of students coming to Emory.”
And that’s coordinator Toluwanimi Olaleye’s favorite part.
"Orientation is special to me because I get to welcome students to a place that I truly love and enjoy,” says Olaleye, a senior psychology major from Philadelphia. “I get to see them expand and learn so much about a place that they'll soon grow to love and enjoy, too."
Learning to lead
Even orientation leaders need an orientation.
A nesting doll of training sessions leads up to the big show itself. The coordinators started the process earlier this year with a spring semester course on leadership, taught by Mitha.
That course kicked off with an overnight retreat at a small farm in Commerce, Georgia, about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta. At the farm, the coordinators participated in a number of team-building activities and workshops that encouraged them to explore their personal styles of leadership.
"Orientation is special to me because I get to welcome students to a place that I truly love and enjoy,” says Toluwanimi Olaleye (left), pictured with fellow coordinator Abby Brown.
Carson Banks
“I’m a very energetic person, so I put my enthusiasm at the forefront,” she says. “What I aim to do is make people feel comfortable and take genuine interest in them, which I think is a great way to make friends. And I approach leadership the way I approach making friends.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Brown says the retreat was the foundation for close friendships with many of her fellow orientation coordinators.
One exercise involved reflecting on how impactful moments or people have shaped each individual’s personal goals.
“Being able to hear all these stories and form this respect for each other was huge. It still permeates our relationships to this day,” Brown says, adding that navigating a roomful of people with different experiences and backgrounds is itself a microcosm of the orientation experience.
A short walk from the farmhouse was a fenced-off grazing area, where cows peacefully chewed on the stubble of winter grass. Each morning, several students would walk down for quiet reflection beside their bovine friends — though Grant notes, with a sad smile, they were not allowed to pet the animals.
Mitha says her favorite part of leading the trip was having her coffee on the back porch and watching the students through the morning mist, knowing that this year’s orientation would be in good hands.
Passing the baton
In August, each coordinator is assigned a small group of orientation leaders to train over the course of a week. Every day is a full nine-to-five shift, packed with chants, posters and conversations on how to make things as easy as possible for incoming students and their families.
Training, Mitha says, comes with a thick binder of facts, scripts and resources for the leaders to learn inside and out. She calls the binder the students’ “holy grail.”
“It’s detailed, but we don’t want folks to be reading off the page because that’s not engaging,” she adds. “So, they have to become experts in that content. Leaders spend a lot of time practicing with each other in their coordinator groups and then sharing feedback on how to improve.”
Orientation leaders also craft what Mitha calls “involvement journey posters.” These detail how students have navigated their time at Emory.
Brown's involvement journey poster captures the ups and downs of her time at Emory.
Abby Brown
This year, Brown’s poster depicts a road with various stops along the way. It starts with the beginning of her journey on the Oxford College campus and follows her through struggles deciding on a major before finding a strong community in the English department.
Brown was first a sophomore orientation leader on the Oxford campus in 2023. The following year, she decided to re-enlist as a leader for her new home on the Atlanta campus.
She says the experience eased her transition to Atlanta.
“When you’re training to be an orientation leader, you’re with other students who really seek connection,” she says. “I felt welcome, and other Oxford continuees felt welcome. It definitely impacted my confidence when I went into other leadership roles at Emory and in Atlanta. I felt that I could put my best foot forward and create connections because I had such a positive experience.”
A highlight of the August training sessions is preparation for Songfest. Before the new students perform and a winner is announced, the orientation leaders and coordinators take the stage for a dance of their own.
Getting the choreography together is always a delight, Olaleye says.
She paints the picture: “Just imagine 150 orientation leaders in the empty Emory Student Center, with the coordinators in the middle teaching dance moves over and over again. It’s great to see everyone laugh, and to see people who can really dance and people who might need a little help. It just brings more community and gets everyone’s spirits up.”
For Grant, those are the moments that bring people together. He says the friends he’s made through the program have introduced him to other parts of the university.
“I’ve met probably half of my closest friends at Emory through the orientation leaders program,” he says. “It’s remarkable. You’re able to connect with people you’d otherwise never find.”
Making connections
Once orientation week is off and running, Mitha says nothing is quite like it.
“I haven't seen another university pour this many resources and this much heart into orientation,” she says. “I think everyone should get really excited for how vibrant and energetic this year’s orientation week is going to be.”
Grant agrees: “My favorite is always move-in day. It’s the culmination of what we’ve been working for the last couple of months, all our training. It’s exciting to go over to the residence halls, put on the music and welcome those first-year students and their families to Emory.”
Olaleye says she enjoyed connecting with her group of students during last year’s orientation and felt qualified to share advice, both from the training and from having been in their shoes herself.
“Speaking to someone who’s been in the same position I’ve been in gives me a sense of familiarity and calmness,” she explains. “At the same time, they know I’ve experienced what they’re experiencing, and they can see how that’s reflected in my own journey through college.”
Brown sees orientation week as an opportunity to help incoming students feel at home in their new community.
“I’ve learned and gained a lot from my own path, and I wouldn’t change it,” she says. “But I do wish I could tap first-year Abby on the shoulder and tell her, ‘Don’t doubt yourself. You can do it.’”
She plans to convey that message to incoming students — and as she does, to her younger self, too.