First-year students move in to Hood for Orientation

By Genesis Lemus//

First-year students finally began their Hood College journey on Aug. 13 as the first new incoming class of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Many rules were implemented to ensure a safe move in and orientation for first-year students. Students arrived at staggered move-in times and had limited time to move into their rooms. However, that did not stop the orientation team from working hard to try and give them a great experience.

Orientation began with a presentation from President Andrea Chapdelaine and ended with the year long tradition of convocation. 

“Despite all the challenges with COVID-19 and staff turnover, I think orientation went extremely well,” said Nick Spicer, the Student Engagement and Orientation Consultant. “We were able to cut down the schedule from four days to two and still provide a good experience for our first-year students.” 

In a socially distanced orientation, first-year students were able to attend events like the trivia game show ThinkFast, have a Blazer Block Party and take a walk to Downtown Frederick. 

“I was so nervous coming to move in because I really did not know what to expect, but from the minute I was done moving in to the end of orientation I made a ton of friends and had a blast,” first-year student Noel Norris said. “My absolute favorite part was getting the opportunity to meet new people before the school year started.” 

Despite all the adjustments, first-year students still had the opportunity to experience the most important tradition for new students, the Dinking Ceremony. The ceremony consists of the orientation assistants “dinking” the students by putting the corresponding class color, blue for the class of 2024, dink on theirheads. 

This year, due to social distancing rules, the OA’s were not able to physically put the dinks on the student’s heads as they traditionally have done. 

“It was a weird experience, but I am thankful that they were still able to make it special and we all got to look ridiculous in our dinks together,” first-year student Sam Moorhead said.