Bonding Over Being New
As I was entering my second semester of junior year, it occurred to me that the college experience was slowly starting to conclude. How could I reflect on all I had learned and also make a difference in my local community networks? The best way I could think of was through taking on the BOND’s role as Development Leader, or DL for short.
Looking back on my experience with joining BOND in 2017, I remember being excited but also intimidated about fitting in. I was now around a group of college students I had never met before who all seemed driven. It truly was an incredible experience to go from thinking my fellow BOND members would merely be acquaintances that I would interact with in a professional way to spending way too much time with on Zoom during quarantine. These were the same people with whom I would choose to be roommates with, make last minute trips to Chicago, and meet up with in Miami Beach. I took that fond realization and used it as an inspiration to bring the newbies of Winter 2020 together. The DL is responsible for facilitating the transition for the freshly recruited newbie class, and this was a great way to provide a foundation of pleasant memories for new members.
The semester started off strong, as the first Newbie Session was a relaxed get-together where the whole newbie class and DL got to know each other and ask candid questions about the organization. The semester followed with thoughtfully-planned workshops to help accent the newbies’ learning experiences within their projects. We also had sessions solely devoted to kicking back and hanging out, like when we grabbed dinner at Markley hall or played the card game called Judgement right before leaving for Spring Break. One of my favorite memories was regrouping after leaving campus to play virtual games together like Skribbl.io and poker.
While coronavirus cut our semester together short, we made sure to stay in touch throughout the summer and discuss how to have an awesome time when we came back! I even made sure to have some one on one calls with all of the newbies to check up on them during quarantine and catch up after final exams. Ilan, Sophie, Jacob, Nameer, Rhea, Drew, and Rohan, it was truly a memorable experience getting to know you all! I hope you all had a great time, and am thrilled to see you this fall!