Ever wonder why some of your orientation groups are having a great time, and others can hardly wait for orientation to be over? The secret: well-trained, skillful orientation leaders who know how to facilitate small groups. Teach your orientation leaders the facilitation skills they need to make sure every group ROCKS!

It is obvious that orientation, Welcome Week, and other new student events are about much more than small group time. However, for many students, those small groups can form the base of lifelong (or at least, semester-long) friendships and connections. Upcraft, Barefoot, and Gardner (2005) assert establishing and maintaining personal relationships is a crucial component of success for first-year students; Blum (2005) suggests that school connectedness is linked to academic success.

Orientation leaders, then, are an integral part of the orientation and retention process on many college campuses. A skilled, enthusiastic, well-trained group of orientation leaders can spell the difference between a hugely successful orientation season, and one that is merely adequate.

The core of this training focuses on facilitation/presentation skills.

Among other things, we might work on:

• Leading the small group process
• Debriefing skills
• Dealing with helicopter parents
• Learning new icebreakers
• Learning simple and effective ways to facilitate icebreakers
• Often includes elements of the You Got Games program

In order to make our programs as effective for you as possible, we first learn specifically what you are looking for: what outcomes, learning, experience do you want your leaders to have at the end of our time together. We learn as much as we can about your campus and the needs of your orientation leaders, then create a customized flow of events tailored to fit your specific needs. Then we spell out in detail our recommendations, staying away from “canned” programs so we can best directly target your intended outcomes.

We’ve worked with group sizes from 4-200 in trainings that range from 2 hours to intensive, 2-3 day retreats. For example, we’ve worked with a team of 17 Orientation Leaders for 13 1/2 hours straight focusing specifically on facilitation and teambuilding, and have facilitated a 2 hour communication workshop for over 150 Orientation Leaders. When we say we customize our events to your specific needs, we mean it.

Program Formats:

• Workshop or Breakout Session (3 hrs)
• As part of Customized Retreat or Training (3 hours – 3 days)