91ÖÆƬ³§

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Podcast: S8 Ep. 18
Date: June 30, 2025
Title: LU Moment: New Student Orientation welcomes new Cardinals to the flock | S8 Ep. 18
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with 91ÖÆƬ³§ faculty, staff, students and alumni. I'm John Rollins, Associate Director of Community Relations and Public Affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show.

JOHN: If you are a first time college student enrolling in classes after graduating high school, 91ÖÆƬ³§ has an exciting opportunity for you. New Student Orientation is back this summer, and here in the studio to tell us all about it, I've got Carlee Smith and Kara Pent joining me today on the show. Welcome to you both.

CARLEE SMITH: Thank you. We're excited to be here.

KARA PENT: Glad to be here.

JOHN: So Carlee, I know we talked about this through email, or I guess we wrote back and forth through email. Summertime is usually a slow time for college universities or higher ed in general, but because of New Student Orientation, you all don't really slow down. So let's hear more about the program.

CARLEE: Yeah, it is definitely a hectic time of year, but my favorite time of year, and I think Kara will agree. Both of our favorite time of year. You know, for us, kind of starting May-ish, whenever we get our Orientation Leaders on campus and we go off a retreat, we are nonstop. So, we have not stopped since, like, May 28 or May 26. It’s been a little crazy. So this is our first week off after our last three sessions. But all of us love doing it. We absolutely love talking to these new students and kind of getting them prepared to step foot on campus. For all of us, our goal is for a student to come to one of these sessions and for them to be excited to be a Cardinal, and then for them to be prepared and be confident to step foot on campus come August and just be ready to take on college life. So, it's really exciting to be able to see the new faces and just kind of get to interact with this new generation of Cardinals.

JOHN: That's so well put. You’ve got your elevator pitch down for sure. Great way to put it. So, let's back up just a little bit. I didn't allow you two to introduce yourselves. So Kara, do you want to introduce yourself, and then we’ll go back to Carly?

KARA: Yeah. So, I'm Kara Pent. I am the Specialist with New Student Orientation. I'm currently pursuing my master's degree, my MBA in Marketing, and I originally got my undergraduate in Physical Education. I was an Orientation Leader last year, and got to move into this Specialist position with the help of Carlee. And I absolutely love helping these new students come into college and start their collegiate career.

CARLEE: I'm Carlee Smith. I'm the Associate Director of New Student Programs here at Lamar underneath the Welcome Center, which is underneath the Office of Admissions. I got my bachelor's in Sports Management in 2020, somewhere around there, and then got my MBA in 2021, and I'm now working on my doctorate in Organizational Leadership. But I became an Orientation Leader in January of 2017 and I have not stopped since. So summer of 2016 was my freshman orientation, and then I was an Orientation Leader that next summer. I was an Orientation Leader for three years at my alma mater, and then I became the graduate assistant for two summers to help run the program. I started working at Lamar in April of 2022 and then that summer, I hosted a breakout session for orientation and got asked to take over the orientation program in January of 2023 here. So, it has truly become my life since I've started with it, and I wouldn't have it any other way. You know, 18-year-old Carlee wouldn't know that orientation was her dream job, but it definitely is, and I love getting to work with the Orientation Leaders and seeing the new students every summer.

JOHN: Fantastic! Well, it sounds like you're in the right spot, for sure. That's what, eight or nine years of orientation? It's how you get your experience, right? So Kara, let's hear from you a little bit, what has your experience working with New Student Orientation been like, and what does your role involve as graduate assistant or specialist?

KARA: So as the specialist or the graduate assistant, I work a lot with the Orientation Leaders, getting them prepped, getting them ready. I got to lead a leadership retreat actually with them earlier in the summer, to get them bonded, to get them like ready to lead and work together as leaders. And then, other than that, I really assist Carlee in anything that she's needing, in prepping. I also do love to sometimes step into the role of Orientation Leader again, revisit if I'm needed.

JOHN: Well, I will tell you this. We did a Q&A on the LU News site. We put it up maybe about a week ago, and we sat down with all of the Orientation Leaders for this year. Thank you, Carlee, for helping set that up. They were awesome to talk to and had such passion. And you can just tell they really just want to help. But anyway, your name came up a couple of times, Kara, as the reason why a few of them joined. So thank you for instilling that in our Cardinals.

KARA: Thanks guys, if you're listening.

JOHN: Yeah, I can't quite remember the names, but yeah, a few of them brought you up, so that's fantastic. Both of you can chime in here. Let's hear more about New Student Orientation. Just a broad overview. What can people expect if you are an incoming freshman, but maybe you haven't signed up yet? How do we get them to do that right?

CARLEE: Absolutely. So for orientation, what I like to say is, it's your first step as like an actual, real college student. But there's still a little bit like, of the safety net there. So you know, you are able to bring up to two guests to orientation with you. You know, a lot of people will bring their parents, family members, things like that. They're there, but we do separate them pretty early in the day. That's kind of something that we started new this year, which I think has kind of been a little helpful. And I like to tell the students in the morning, like, you know, you're here, your parents, family guest members, they are here. They're in different building, but they are still here. You know, the safety net is there. But the goal with orientation, especially New Student Orientation, is to have that peer to peer connection, because with the students, you know, we really want them to feel comfortable in August and feel excited to be here. You know, obviously there's going to be nerves, but they're already going to have connections. They're already going to know some faces, especially within their peers, and then even some faculty and staff members that they meet on campus. So, you know, come August, when you're on campus and you don't know where to go, you know, unfortunately, you're not going to have that parent, family or guest member with you, but you will have that Orientation Leader that you met, or a peer mentor or some LU Ambassador, someone that you've already met on campus throughout these different types of situations that we put you in during orientation and, you know, during the day, they actually get added to a GroupMe chat, with all the students coming in for their college, with their Orientation Leaders. So then if you leave orientation and you have some questions, you already get to start talking to your peers about that. And so that's our biggest goal. So whenever they come, they check in, we split them up from their parents, and we say, say goodbye, you're going to be okay. I promise you, we’ve got you. You're going to learn something. And then we send them off, and they get started with their OLs. We kind of start more in that, like large group setting, a little like orientation tradition, where you'll find on most campuses and Orientation Leaders will do skits or do dances or just something fun to kind of break the ice, you know, because everyone's like, I don't know anyone here, this is awkward, right? So, we're going to make it fun. We'll make fun of ourselves, it's okay. We are okay. We are all learning together. And then after that, they kind of break up into those smaller groups. They get placed with an Orientation Leader, and it's based off of majors and colleges. So the goal would be, find a friend that you're most likely going to have in class, and then they get to spend some time going around campus. They get to do a small group Orientation Leader, Q&A session to where we go over more of like the resources on campus, just kind of how to be a college student, but how to be a college student from someone that's currently a college student, because they don't need me telling them how to be a college student. That was a long time ago, and anyone else, it's you know how what currently works? You know what currently you can you do to be successful. Then they do get to go meet their academic colleges, talk to some of their professors that they'll have. You know, the colleges are going to tell them how they're going to help them be successful, you know, and get them across that graduation stage. Then after that, we do get to reunite them with their parents and families and guests, and they get to talk about their day. And then after that, we kind of have, like, almost, we call it next steps, and it's where, if you need to get anything done, we can help you with that. Talk to Student Aid, talk to Cashier's Office, go get your ID photo if you have not been advised and have classes yet. We'll take care of that for you. So the goal would be to leave and be ready for that August start date. But if not, you're now connected with people that will make sure that you're prepared to do that.

JOHN: You're going to  leave with resources you didn't show up with. One stop shop. So Kara, tell me this, being involved with this program, what is a favorite memory or a story from New Student Orientation that you could share? Maybe we have a future Cardinal listening who hasn't signed up yet.

KARA: There's so many to choose from. I will say the best experience that I've had with orientation, with being an Orientation Leader, is meeting my best friend. So I actually got connected to her through becoming an Orientation Leader last year, and then we both together helped make some little we call them “popsicle moments” happen, where people would they have these big moments that you don't really know that you're making, but I have had a few people come up to me and tell me like, Oh, you were part of my little moment, and you made this so special for me, and that was so special. And then to get to share that with my best friend, who was there with me the whole time, shout out, April, who was there with me the whole time, and helping me make those connections and making those moments happen. It's been really special for me.

JOHN: That’s really great to hear, and it kind of speaks to the strength of this program. You know, Carlee mentioned the GroupMe and ways to stay connected and how you split them up by major. And I think whenever you're around people with similar interests, it's so much easier to start a conversation. Then you start to realize I could be friends with this person the next four years. You know, to your point, you got a best friend out of this program. So that's pretty amazing. But beyond that, you know, I do want to talk touch a little bit on the Welcome Center. We call it the front door to the campus, right? So the first building you see, it's fantastic. But what exactly do y'all do at the Welcome Center?

CARLEE: Yeah, for those who don't know, I like to think of us as having two main focal points. It’s that face-to-face connection during the admissions process. So the Welcome Center staff is located in there, and then our three local admissions counselors are in there, and then our LU Crew members and Orientation Leaders are all housed in there. So anytime someone comes in with, like, an admissions question, you know, and they just want that face to face, like, Hey, I can't get this figured out, you know, they're able to talk to us, and we're able to sit down. And the biggest thing, just like, how you leave orientation resources, is you're going to leave having this figured out, right? We want to ensure that they're confident and that they got any and all their questions answered, or they at least know what next step they need to take to get something completed. So that's mainly our like day to day operation is making sure we have that face to face connection with those students going through that process. And then our other focus points are our campus events and kind of that campus experience for those perspective students and our new students. We host Cardinal View twice a year, which is our open house, and that's for our prospective students and newly admitted students. They come, we have our academic showcase. They get to see more of those academic colleges. You know, if they don't know what they want to major in yet, you get to go sit down and just see any of these sessions. And you know, let us help you out. We can provide some resources for you there really, just to kind of get to see Lamar and see faculty and staff and just, you know, all these people that come together to hopefully make you a Cardinal and make you successful. And then we have our daily campus tours, and we do those in groups, and we do them for individuals. So we always have schools walking in. We always get to meet students, you know, they get an admissions presentation, and then our LU Crew members, which are our tour guides, get to take them around campus and just again, continue that peer to peer connection and really show them like, Hey, this is, this is what life at Lamar is like. And then for me, you know, my main focus there is orientation, because it is a large focus, but I get to kind of be the last leg of it. And, you know, hopefully accept those students at New Student Orientation and get them ready for that first class day. And then once we get them in August for the first class day, we start getting ready for our next cycle of students.

JOHN: And “welcoming” is definitely the right word for that group, the LU Crew and then the Orientation Leaders and all of you on staff definitely welcome our visitors. So thank you for that. Kara, I do have to throw this out there. We've got a couple of minutes left, but you sent over a really fun fact about yourself. You're going to be volunteering at the Winter Olympics in February? What is that about?

KARA: So I just, I actually started this process back in September, and you apply in September, they said they had like 200,000 something applicants. And so I went through a group interview, and I went through this whole application process, and I got my email last week that I got accepted to volunteer in the Hospitality sector at the Winter Olympics in 2026 in Italy.

JOHN: Oh, congratulations! Lamar is making some appearances at the these Olympic happenings. I don't know if you heard about the Olympic Trials. We had two athletes make it to the trials last year.

KARA: Yes, Lamar is killing it with the Olympics representation.

JOHN: Well, congrats to you! What an amazing accomplishment.

KARA: Thank you.

JOHN: Come back with some stories, and we need to chat when you get back. Okay Carlee, we do have a little bit of time as well. You mentioned something about “Momma Kay.” There's a “Momma K” story. Do you want to really quickly touch on that, because I think it's a cool, full circle moment.

CARLEE: Absolutely. So our Orientation Coordinator, who supervised us as Orientation Leaders, her name was Karen Westfall. We called her Momma K, and just very big on an aspect of the Orientation Leaders and our professional staff members as a family. And so she left our institution my first year as a graduate assistant, and kind of gave me a letter on her way out. Was just like, you're meant to do this. You know? She's like, I can see you in orientation, and she put, she's, like, you're going to be “Momma Carlee,” I can see it. And so it's a little letter that I've had, and it was kind of a full circle moment this summer. I don't know how, but I did. I became Momma Carlee. They all started calling me Momma Carlee. And it was full circle for me. It’s great. I love doing it because I love seeing the new students on campus, but working with those Orientation Leaders and getting to see them kind of grow up and just prosper. And, you know, I got to be with Kara throughout her application process, and I edited her application and her resume for the Olympic Trials and with other students just being, you know, being that person that they come to and just they're ready to once they're ready to leave Lamar and kind of go out there. It's so great to just watch them prosper. So I absolutely love it. It was, it's a great, great, good time.

JOHN: Awesome. So let's tell the folks who are listening before we wrap up, how can they find out the dates that are upcoming? I know there's three dates in July, mid-July. Are those full yet? Can they still sign up? Is it a website? How would they go about finding that?

CARLEE: Our first July one, July 14, is full, but students move around, so I always tell them, keep looking. We don't technically close that registration until about the week before. If they go online to Lamar's website and they just look up Orientation, our orientation website will list all the dates, and we'll have them be able to register. They just need to know how to get in with their LEA account and then it's very simple to register. After that, there's a calendar, and if it's white, it's an open day, and if it's grayed out, it won't let you register. And then, so if they need any help, they can always email us at orientation@lamar.edu and we will help them.

JOHN: There you go! Making it easy, right? Alright Carlee and Kara, thanks to both of you for joining me today and for everything you do for our students. It's been great to have you both. That's a wrap on another episode. Please make sure to search LU Moment, wherever you get your podcasts, to keep up with the events, activities, programs and people right here at 91ÖÆƬ³§. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.