FYP’s Nada Gheith: Three Pillars to Ease Freshman Experience

By: Nesrien Abdelkader 

@NesrienAshraf 

The First Year Program (FYP) is a mandatory three-day orientation for incoming freshmen and transfer students. Students learn about the liberal arts education offered at AUC and participate in social and classroom activities.

The Caravan sat down for a brief interview with Business Administration senior Nada Gheith,  FYP’s current president. 

Q- What is the purpose of FYP and how do you help students?

A- The purpose of FYP is basically orienting freshmen or AUC students into AUC through a condensed three-day program. Then, we follow up on that three-day program with a yearlong program of activities, events and so on and so forth to help orient freshmen into AUC.

Q- How long has this program been happening?

A- That’s actually interesting because it was initially FYE [First Year Experience] and PAL [Peer Advising Leader Program]. What these two entities basically did was, FYE was responsible for that three-day orientation solely to an extent. Sometimes, they would do events later but the main thing was the FYE orientation. PAL was more or less the opposite. It was part of the advising before the orientation and then they follow up on that with a yearlong program of activities. It was, to an extent, an academically centered entity, but it also had other engagement and entertainment events. In 2017, FYE and PAL merged to form the ‘First Year Program’. The merger was supposed to happen to align the level of orienting the freshmen because you have them from the beginning of the orientation and then you build on that through a yearlong program of activities. They have one peer leader who is also the person they meet at advising. The purpose of it was to have one freshman entity serve the mandate of orienting freshmen through the yearlong program and through the orientation.

Q- Were there any sponsors on campus during this year’s FYP?  

A- We had a deal with Doodle Factory. They gave discounts for their products. With regards to the Hype and Red Bull scenario, basically FYP is under the Dean [of Students’] office. The dean’s office handles different things including the Center for Student Wellbeing. In alignment with that, we don’t bring any sponsors related to tobacco products, alcohol or energy drinks simply because we care for the wellbeing of the freshmen. We wouldn’t want to promote something for them that’s definitely harmful. Energy drinks are harmful. In alignment with the student wellbeing strategy, we just don’t have any contracts with energy drinks whatsoever. In our events, even in events that we collaborate in, we don’t.

Q- Did any energy drink companies try to make a deal with the FYP organizers to sample their product on campus during the event?  

A- We just really don’t get in contact with energy drink companies whatsoever. Energy drinks especially are very easy to bring in as sponsors. Walking around campus, how many times a year do you find sponsors of energy drinks? A lot, more than any other thing as a category. That’s because AUC is their target market. They try to sell their product as much as possible to the student body because this is their target market. They want students who are tired and feel the need for that energy boost. However, what we call for is to avoid that and try and live a healthier lifestyle. While it’s definitely not something that we’re able to have control over for the whole freshman body, it’s something that we try as much as possible to set as a present. Contracting and having energy drinks as business partners does not necessarily fall into that philosophy at all. No one approached us. It was never even the case that an energy drink company approached us with an attractive offer and we had to plead for it in the office for example. We’re very aligned with that vision and there was never any talk of this.

Q- Is FYP successful with students?

A- I’d say that first of all, we try our best. We really work all summer for the orientation and all year for the program of activities. However, when you are serving around 1200 to 1300 students, of course there are going to be students that do not benefit the way we want them to. At the end of the day, personally, as Nada, I believe, and also from the metrics that we have and the feedback, they definitely get something out of it. Whether they get the information that we want to provide them with to maximize their utilization of AUC experience in general, or they make friends, or they have a good time or they just know where everything is geographically located around campus. I hope at least each freshman gets one thing out of it.

Q- What projects do you have planned?

A- So basically we have 3 pillars along which we initiate projects. The academics pillar is for initiating creative projects, which facilitate the academic shock that freshmen receive, in the beginning of their university experience. The engagement pillar is for for serving first-year students socially via launching projects and initiatives, as well as organizing events that aim to build a community among first-year students, and also integrating them socially among the rest of the AUC community. The skills and development pillar aims to launch projects that focus on the personal development and enhancement of the life skills needed by first-year students.

Q- What do you do to help stressed out freshmen?

A- The main aim of everything we do is all built around trying to relieve different kinds of stress that freshmen experience when they first enter university. In the academics pillar, it’s all about initiating projects that relieve any academic stress freshmen receive such as the review sessions and different projects that we will be launching soon. In the engagement pillar, it’s giving them the chance to chill, to socialize and to relieve any stress that’s initiated by feeling socially anxious or awkward by making friends through the projects that we initiate. They can be trips or whatever fun stuff that’s happening in the plaza. The skills and development pillar aims to relieve the stress that freshman experience because there’s a specific skill that they should have or that they are unable to acquire. This can include cooking or driving or whatever. All of the pillars are aimed around relieving the different types of stress that freshmen face in their transition to university life.