Lethbridge College welcomes new students to campus

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 6, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge College welcomed more than 1,400 students to campus Tuesday morning for its New Student Orientation (NSO) to help them navigate their new environment and get acquainted with each other.
Associate Dean of student affairs Lindsay Workman spoke to reporters and said energy around campus was contagious as the students walked in the doors.
“I was so excited just walking in from the parking lot this morning and running into my first two students who needed help finding their way, just the energy in here is so exciting,” said Workman.
She said enrolment numbers are looking really strong across all programs, with enrolment at this point up about 10 per cent over this time last year.   “We will know more details on that in the next couple of weeks as things settle down, but we’re very pleased to know we’re up about 300 students or so over this time last year, and it’s looking really positive,” said Workman.
She said the NSO is a time for new students to meet people, as for some students this could be their first time away from home.
 “They could be sitting next to someone who’s going to become their best friends for life, or maybe their future spouse, or maybe their future colleagues, or business partner, or whatever the case may be, so it was really meant to build that connection,” said Workman.
 She said it also gave students the opportunity to meet people with others from their program areas before the first day of classes, as well as provided a services fair for students to find out what supports are available at the college.
“We know that is exciting and it can be kind of scary, so we really wanted to focus on building that sense of belonging and connection today,” said Workman.
 She said that while students received a lot of information during the NSO related to the college in general, they also had the opportunity to have orientation specific to their programs.
 “We’re having over 30 orientations on campus today. There have been some last week for apprentices in trades, but there are a number of program orientations happening this morning where students will get to connect with their peers, with their instructors, and the people that they’re really going to be spending so much of their time with when they are here,” said Workman.
She said another aspect that was introduced during the NSO Tuesday was a campaign that was developed over the summer to normalize feelings about being new on campus.
 “A campaign around normalizing some of that nervousness and things that new students may be feeling. We’re calling it our College 101 Campaign, and students will see a series of six posters around campus that say things like ‘starting college and dealing with money can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be’ normalizing those feelings that we all have had and then students can scan a QR code on the poster and it takes them to our website that shares information and resources that are helpful,” said Workman.

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