Fun Welcome Events at IUPUI Have Serious Purpose: Connect Students to Campus

INDIANAPOLIS – When IUPUI students arrive for the first day of classes August 23, they will be welcomed by a series of events designed to get them involved on campus and in the community.

“Weeks of Welcome” events – ranging from showing a newly release movie at night under the stars in the University College courtyard, to a fall student convocation, to a concert, to a “Playfair” – await IUPUI students.

While many of the events are held for fun, they all have a serious purpose: help students feel they belong at IUPUI. The sense of belonging on a college campus often determines whether students will succeed or not, regardless of how well prepared academically they are.

“It is critical that students feel this is their place,” said Gayle Williams, Assistant Dean of University College. “Students who don’t feel connected are at risk. “All of these programs are designed to encourage students to connect to IUPUI.”

For 200 new IUPUI students, the “Weeks of Welcome” events at IUPUI will be icing on the cake. These students are completing a two-week Summer Bridge Program that ends August17. The program is designed to let them make friends before school starts, learn about the campus, and get a jump-start in their majors or to help them think about their possible majors.

Julie Ashmore, a senior, knows exactly when her “love” of IUPUI started. “It started with the first day of the Summer Bridge program.”

As a freshman, she recalled, she began the school year with a group of friends she made during the Summer Bridge program and she was familiar with the campus. “It made me feel connected to campus and it all started with that first day of Bridge.

Stephanie Birchler, also a senior, said, the Bridge program enabled her to meet people from all over central Indiana she met in her Bridge class, many of whom she continues to stay in contact with. “It helped prepare me. If I hadn’t done it, I would have been totally lost.”

There are about 100 additional students in specialized Bridge Programs, including a Mathematics Bridge program, to help students successfully hurdle what can be one of the their most serious academic barriers, and a special honors bridge program for scholarship award winners.

Weeks of Welcome Events include:

August 23 - Free Water and information on how to get involved with University College Student Council.
August 25 - New Student Convocation, 3 p.m. gymnasium at the IUPUI Natatorium.
August 29 - Learn about student organization and volunteer opportunities.
August 30 - Student employment and internship fair.
August 31 - Study abroad fair.
August 31 - Newly release movie to be shown in University College ourtyard, 9 p.m.
September 1 - Enjoy an Indianapolis Indians baseball game, 6:30 p.m.
September 6 - Playfair – cool games and live entertainment.
September 7- Mike Sullivan Band.
September 11- Interfaith prayer session remember victims of 9/11.
September 13 - Advocacy fair.
September 14 - Explore diversity in America at one-woman production of “Faces in America at the Madame Walker Theatre.
September 15 - Irish Fest.
September 18-20 - Constitution Day, 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.
September 19 - Latino Family Night, 6p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
September 21 - IUPUI students enjoy free admission and gameplay at Jillians.
September 22 - United Way Day of Caring.
September 30 - Tour city to learn its history and team up for a service project.

For more information visit http://wow.iupui.edu!