NOW! (NUS College Onboarding and Welcome) is the inaugural onboarding and welcome experience for all NUS College students including incoming first years and seniors. Associate Professor Eleanor Wong, Vice Dean (Residential Programmes & Enrichment) and student directors Jamie Lee and Grace Yong who led students in organising NOW!, shared more about their experience.
NUS College: What did you enjoy most about the onboarding programme? What makes NOW! different than other orientation programmes?
Jamie and Grace: We truly enjoyed working with our passionate and dedicated committee to plan the programme, and of course, meeting the first-years in-person for the first time during O’Week. Watching them have fun during our events made the challenging journey of planning them worthwhile!
What makes NOW! different from other orientation programmes is that there is something for everyone. Regardless of whether you enjoy physical games or intellectual puzzles, community service, playing sports, immersing yourself in the arts, and more, we tried our best to cater to a wide diversity of interests throughout NOW!. We also ensured that the first-years could find a community within NUS College to call home by inducting them into the various support systems such as the House, Faculty, Floor and Interest Groups during NOW!.
"I enjoyed interacting with the year 1s and making new friends! NOW! sets itself apart from other orientation programs with its focus on providing a wholesome and inclusive experience."
NUS College: What was your most difficult decision in planning NOW! and why did you decide to do this?
Prof El: Requiring that NOW! be partly admin-led. This was, hands down, the hardest decision I had to make. Onboarding and welcome is traditionally and rightly a way for the senior students to bring the first years into their community. But, because of the way NUS College began, we had to balance many other considerations. First, as a new institution, we had to not only to keep “white space” for a fresh (possibly different) community culture to emerge but also to intentionally seed some values as foundation.
Second, as an institution with two inspirational and distinctive precursors, we had to find a coherent way to express our connection to both without defaulting to division or collage. The curation required to attempt this would have been an unfair burden to place on any student committee alone. And that’s why the administration had to be involved – working alongside an amazing group of NUS College seniors and co-ordinating with counterparts at Yale-NUS College to bring in Yale-NUS students as well.
NUS College: What impact do you see NOW! having on the first-years?
Jamie and Grace: Ultimately, one of the main objectives of NOW! was to make the transition to University easier for the first-years, which we certainly hope it did. Beyond that, we also wish to see the friendships forged during NOW!, be it within the House, Faculty, Floor or within the entire NUS College community, become something the first-years treasure dearly. Hopefully, the friends they met through NOW! will form a strong support system for them to rely on throughout their NUS College journey, and even later on in life.
"NOW! serves as the perfect opportunity to meet new people and forge new friendships with. Through NOW!, I got to meet my closest friends in NUS College where we hang out, study and play together. NOW! Is great as it acts as the catalyst for the start of friendships that will last throughout the years from our time in NUSC and beyond! "
NUS College: What do you hope for next year’s onboarding programme?
Jamie and Grace: Firstly, we are glad that through this year’s events, the freshmen enjoyed themselves and formed lasting bonds with their peers. However, we know that there’s definitely still room for improvement, and we hope next year’s committee will bring their best and freshest ideas to the table. It would be wonderful if the programme achieves its goal of orientating the incoming freshmen to life at NUS College whilst encouraging them to add their unique colours to it, thus building a diverse and tightly-knitted community which we can all call home.
We definitely also hope to see more interactions between the seniors and freshmen during the programme next year, which we unfortunately thought was insufficient this year. We believe an earlier introduction to NUS College’s various support communities, such as the Houses, will make the freshmen feel welcomed and supported in the NUS College community and hopefully make their transition to University easier.
The road ahead might be daunting, but we hope the next FOP committee will embrace the uncertainty and plan with the freshmen’s best interests in mind. All the best to Freshmen Orientation Director, Wyman (Chen) and his team!
NUS College: What’s in store for next year’s edition?
Prof El: We hope to continue to work with the student leaders to build on our own unique NOW!. Especially those aspects that most reflect values such as respecting the agency and individuality of all NUS College students, and an emphasis on community and wellness.
NUS College: Do you have a message to all who played a part in making NOW! a success?
Jamie and Grace: We can never emphasise this enough, but a huge THANK YOU to everyone who was involved in the planning and execution of NOW!. We could not have successfully concluded the events without all your hard work and sacrifices behind the scenes. Despite the many obstacles in our way, all of you always put in your 110% to turn our plans into reality, and we are so thankful for that. Once again, thank you for sticking by us and taking all the abrupt changes in your stride.
To the community, thank you for your unwavering support! We really appreciate all that stood by us, put in their best efforts and encouraged us to keep going. We have learnt so much from this experience and are grateful to be blessed with so many friendships along the way.
Finally, to everyone who participated in NOW!, thank you for being so enthusiastic and participative throughout all our events. We have enjoyed meeting you over the summer break, and are truly very heartened to see your enthusiasm whilst taking part in our activities. To the freshmen, we hope that you will continue to make friends and forge bonds with your peers and seniors during your time in NUSC, and we wish you all the best for your university journey ahead!
Prof El: Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
The inaugural NOW! featured meaningful social service projects, in-person and virtual social mixers and other fun-filled, interactive opportunities with new college mates.
For highlights on NOW!, visit https://linktr.ee/nusc_onboarding.
