By Sofia Montoya-Deck //
Hood College welcomed 405 new Blazers to campus on Thursday, Aug. 15 as they kicked off their college experience with a four-day orientation.
The new students hail from 24 states and the District of Columbia, as well as nine countries.
Highlights of this year’s orientation activities included a scavenger hunt, games, ice-breakers, yoga on the quad and more. “I loved the chance to hang out with people and just get to know those around me,” first-year Ray Zoretich said. “I also just loved my PMs [peer mentors] because they had the best vibes.”
On Saturday, Aug. 17, new students were presented with their “dinks,” a long-standing Hood tradition in which new students are “dinked” with a colored beanie representative of their class year. The class of 2028 received blue dinks at this year’s ceremony.
On Sunday, Aug.18, Hood’s annual convocation ceremony was held in Coffman Chapel. Speakers included Vice President for Enrollment Management Bill Brown, Interim President Debbie Ricker, SGA President Katie Stang and Interim Provost Paige Eager. Brown delivered his last convocation speech as he plans to retire in September.
“Our new students are both accomplished and diverse in their interests,” Brown said. He gave examples of many students completing impressive internships and participating in unique hobbies such as beekeeping, captaining a robotics team, steaming crabs and earning a black belt in taekwondo.
For the second consecutive year, the college has zero twins enrolled, a statistic that prompted a sigh of defeat from the audience. However, there is a significant amount of name overlap, with the most common last names of the class being Jackson and Miller. Many students also share the same birthday–eight of them landing on Jan. 5.
Additionally, the new class includes students who already have strong ties to Hood, namely 20 legacies and four dependents of Hood faculty and staff.
On an academic note, the new class has four Chair of the Board scholarship recipients, which covers full tuition, and 16 runners-up. Additionally, the Honors Program will welcome 63 first-years and 13 transfer students this year.
From the incoming cohort, 137 students have been recruited to participate in at least one of Hood’s athletic teams. This includes 25 women’s ice hockey recruits who will begin their inaugural season in November.
“There is an excellent balance in academic interest in this class,” Brown said in his speech. The most popular majors, according to preferences listed in their applications, are nursing and business, followed by psychology, computer science and biology.
At the conclusion of Convocation, new students prepared for their first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 19. “I love the classes,” Zoretich said of their first few weeks at Hood. “I feel like I’ve clicked really fast with a few people. Overall, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive in all aspects of my college experiences, whether that be academic, athletic, or within the community, and I really do feel welcome here.”
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