{"id":39462,"date":"2018-08-17T16:17:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T21:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=39462"},"modified":"2018-08-17T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T21:18:15","slug":"icebreaker-activities-for-fort-hays-state-freshmen-help-ease-transition-to-their-home-away-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=39462","title":{"rendered":"‘Icebreaker’ activities for Fort Hays State freshmen help ease transition to their home away from home"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien <\/strong>
\nUniversity Relations and Marketing <\/em>
\nThree Fort Hays State University freshmen said they usually celebrate their birthdays with family and friends.<\/p>\n

During one of their first nights on the FHSU campus, Eric Berry, Sarah Makinster and Nyza Milligan experienced one of the largest birthday parties of their 19 years.<\/p>\n

Those three, who were all celebrating their birthdays Thursday, were among the nearly 800 freshmen who participated in a pep rally of sorts at Lewis Field Stadium.<\/p>\n

During \u201cTraditions Night\u201d \u2013 a popular event on campus during move-in week at FHSU \u2013 new freshmen enjoyed a BBQ dinner near Custer Hall, then marched to the football stadium for a night of meet-and-greet activities called \u201cTraditions Night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introducing the freshmen to some FHSU traditions, the Tiger Marching Band played as they marched into the stadium, making for a festive mood as the FHSU cheerleaders and dance team performed much like in a pep rally. Members of the fall sports teams also spoke, encouraging the new students to come support them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis definitely is the biggest (pep rally) ever for me,\u201d said Berry, who graduated in a class of 60 at Hugoton High School.<\/p>\n

Makinster\u2019s high school graduating class in Denver was more than 10 times that size (700), and Milligan, who is from Manhattan, also had a large class (450).<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, they said they also were impressed with the size of Thursday\u2019s turnout.<\/p>\n

The 80 orientation leaders \u2013 current FHSU students \u2013 who helped out with the event appeared to be having as much fun as the freshmen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s neat to see each year the people who come in hesitant, and they start talking to people and making friends,\u201d said Adam Schibi, one of the orientation leaders.<\/p>\n

Schibi is a senior from Hays who was so impressed with Traditions Night his freshman year in 2014 that he has helped out at the event every year since. He said he especially enjoyed participating this year, getting to see a lot of the new faces on campus as president of the Student Government Association.<\/p>\n

It was a lively atmosphere on a pleasant evening under the lights. A representative from Playfair, an out-of-state tour company that performs team-building experiences on college campuses, guided the freshmen through various activities on the football field. Jacob Schoenfeld shouted intermittently over the microphone, \u201cSmile; it\u2019s your first day of college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schoenfeld, a senior from Salida, Colo., is president of the University Activities Board, which sponsors Traditions Night, one of several events geared to make freshmen more comfortable in their first few days on campus. Like Schibi, Schoenfeld said it\u2019s a good icebreaker for the newcomers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them seem skeptical, and it can be overwhelming,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when they start participating in the activities, they start to get more relaxed. It definitely draws the introverts out more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kailee Gibson, a senior orientation leader from Ozawkie in northeast Kansas, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you get out of your comfort zone,\u201d she said. \u201cOur job is to spot ones who appear more cautious and try to get them more involved. I think it’s a really good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beneficial even for those who make friends easily, said Katy Walters, a freshman from Hays.
\nWalters, a vocal performance major, participated in 4-H while growing up with three older brothers, and she was active in high school at Thomas More Prep-Marian as well. So striking up a conversation with just about anyone is no problem.<\/p>\n

But she confirmed that the meet-and-greet activities are also good for extroverts.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing in blind, you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Walters said. \u201cThen they have you shake people\u2019s hands and introduce yourself to others. Right now, I don\u2019t know if people really realize all they get out of this because it\u2019s fun and interesting, and it all goes pretty fast. But down the road, we will see people on campus that we met tonight and recognize them. I\u2019ll bet I met 35 to 40 people just tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien University Relations and Marketing Three Fort Hays State University freshmen said they usually celebrate their birthdays with family and friends. During one… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MG_8262.jpg?fit=5130%2C3420&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39464,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39462\/revisions\/39464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}