College move-in marks the beginning of the transition to college and adulthood. Your hand is no longer held through every little step, and you’re expected to do things you may not have done by yourself before. It can be an overwhelming and scary process, but that's where someone like me comes in.
The experience is something new, but new doesn’t mean bad; it just means it might be a little uncomfortable.
I remember being a first-year student, after my parents left me, and feeling unsure of what to do next, as I was in a new place and didn’t know who I should talk to. It left me with a sort of strange feeling, I was preparing months in advance to move to school, and after I blinked, I was now standing in my dorm, watching my family drive away.
That feeling is why the orientation program and move-in are so important for the transition to college.
The people you met during orientation, the RA you check in with, the other students holding the door as you move in your boxes become your new community during your time at SUNY New Paltz.
As orientation leaders, we’re some of the first people students interact with. We spend the summer from May to late July welcoming five sessions of students, each group varying in size from 150, to up to 400 students. We introduce them to campus, answer questions and build a bond with each group member as we get them adjusted.
After they go back home from the orientation program, we then spend some more time planning on how to make move-in and their first week on campus go smoothly, hosting multiple events for parents and students alike. All of this preparation allows us to create the tone of the school early on.
We can’t completely remove every nervous feeling from every student, it would be impossible to. But we can do our best to make students feel like they aren’t alone. Sometimes that means helping carry boxes. Sometimes it means giving directions. And sometimes, it’s as simple as sending a text to a past orientation student asking how their first week was.
Moving in and the transition to college isn’t just for one person; it’s an adjustment for everyone: students, parents, siblings, and even Orientation Leaders themselves. Families are saying goodbye, students are starting a new chapter, and we’re helping to make that a little easier.
To me, my job matters because we’re helping to create someone’s first memory of SUNY New Paltz. Years from now, they may not remember exactly where their room was or how hot it was outside as they moved in, but they might remember the person who welcomed them, made them laugh, or helped them feel like they belonged. You have the opportunity to create bonds with people that may last a lifetime.
My supervisor, Ariana Carbonaro always tells the story of someone she met at orientation during her time at SUNY New Paltz. That bond is still important to her, and the friend she made at orientation is even being invited to her wedding later this year.
I think that story says a lot about what orientation and move-in can become. You might think you're just meeting someone for a few days, or that you’re just answering a question, or that you’re just holding a door open. But you don’t know how that one interaction made someone know that they have a community that will look out for them on campus.
And that, to me, is what orientation is really about: helping someone take those first steps into a new chapter and reminding them that they don’t have to take those steps alone. So when a family drives away after dropping off their student, they feel a little bit more secure that their student chose to attend SUNY New Paltz. And just maybe, an incoming student isn’t as nervous about starting their time at college as I was.
Louis McGlory is an undergraduate Marketing student at SUNY New Paltz and a current orientation leader from Middletown, New York. After transferring to SUNY New Paltz in the Fall 2024 semester, he wants to help new students during their transition to college.
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