My first year in college was both a very exciting and intimidating time for me. I still remember starting college and feeling alone amidst the thousands of students traveling from one class to another. Throughout my college experience, I was fortunate to befriend many peers and faculty who supported my intellectual and social development. However, I was also saddened to see many of the friends I made not complete their college education goals.
The first year of college is one of the most critical years of your college education. Here, at Salt Lake Community College, we are driven by a desire to help you grow and achieve your higher education goals. SLCC ranks third in the nation for college completion rates, so you are already coming into a system that is well designed to help you succeed. To this end, your task this first year is to take advantage of all the resources available to you.
For the majority of you, attending New Student Orientation was (or will be) the initial introduction to your first year of college. In orientation, you learned about the different types of degrees SLCC offers, received advice on how to plan your first year and a tutorial on how to register for courses. You heard from student leaders about the importance of getting involved in one of the many campus organizations that exist at our institution and familiarized yourself with the academic expectations SLCC faculty will have of you as you begin classes. Our first year advisors will also be visiting many of the classes with high first-year student enrollment rates, such as EDU 1020 – Essentials of College Success, to further expand on the concepts you learned in orientation.
Throughout the year, you will hear of many other different activities designed with your success in mind. For example, every week for the duration of your first semester, you will receive “Start Smart” e-mails from our office, which detail important information you will need to know to help you succeed at SLCC. These e-mails will inform you of events happening at the college and will highlight offices such as the Learning Resources Office, which connects you with tutors to help you succeed in those difficult courses, or Academic and Career Advising, which houses a number of advisors to help you plan out your second or third semesters. These e-mails will be sent to your BruinMail, so it is important that you check this account regularly.
During the first week of the fall and spring semesters, the Student Life and Leadership office will host welcome week activities, which includes a club rush, an information fair, entertainment and food! Plan on attending these events so you can learn more about what SLCC has to offer.
As our office grows, so will our programs and resources. We are currently in the process of designing a First Year Experience website, which will serve as your one-stop shop to a wealth of resources created to help you succeed at SLCC. Those resources include short tutorials about various tools or procedures you will interact with in your first college year. A preview of these resources can be found in this issue of “The Globe” as Nancy Giraldo, First Year advisor, informs you about what a syllabus is, and how faculty at SLCC will use it.
Starting college can be an exciting and intimidating time for any new student. There will be moments of ambiguity, times of frustration and even the occasional questioning of why you are here. However, there will also be innumerable joys, you’ll meet lifelong friends, and most importantly, it will be a time of growth. We are here to help you navigate through this experience. We are here to help you. Please do not hesitate to contact us. We can be reached by phone at 801-957-4299, or by e-mail at newstudentorientation@slcc.edu.
On behalf of everyone in my office, I welcome you to your first year at SLCC. I know it will be a great year!
