WMU's orientation program earns eighth national award
Jan. 9, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- The National Orientation Directors Association presented an Outstanding Use of Theme award to Western Michigan University's Office of Admissions and Orientation during NODA's annual conference in Baltimore Nov. 6-10.
WMU was honored for its orientation theme of "A Brand New Beat," which was integrated into the University's 2002 orientation experience for new students in more than 100 ways. This marks the eighth time that the University has won a NODA award. The last honor was received in 2000 for outstanding orientation attire.
"A Brand New Beat" was created and developed by WMU's 2002 student orientation coordinators, all of whom hail from Michigan and are members of the Lee Honors College. They are Rose Hoelzle of Cass City, a senior majoring in secondary education-English; Kai Kotts of Dearborn, a senior majoring in secondary special education; and Ben Morin of Howell, a junior majoring in aviation flight science.
"The theme is just one example of the level of creativity demonstrated all year by the student orientation coordinators," Christopher Tremblay, WMU coordinator of orientation, says.
"They did an outstanding job incorporating the theme in all aspects of our program. It's great for them to receive national recognition for their efforts."
Departments across the University used the theme to create presentations and printed materials to train orientation staff as well as to help incoming students and their parents get acquainted with WMU.
"This musical theme gave departments a lot of creative flexibility," Tremblay says, "from talking about the 'tempos' of college life to debuting on a new chart called WMU."
Media contact: Jeanne Baron, 269 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu