My son is a freshman at Cal Poly and is considering being a Week of Welcome group leader in the Fall. I’m just curious about the pros and cons from the student AND parent perspective.
So…
What are the benefits?
What are the drawbacks?
Was there an impact on the start of the school year (time management, stress, distraction, etc.)
How much support can/should I provide as a parent?
In full disclosure, I’m not looking for information in order to persuade my son one way or the other. I just want to know what to expect, good and bad, if he decides to do it.
My wife and I liked that Cal Poly ran such an involved program for their incoming freshmen. We have a very positive view of it. When we are visiting colleges with our younger daughter over the next couple of years, we will be sure to ask how those schools introduce and acclimate new students to campus life.
I am a junior at Cal Poly studying ME, and I was an orientation leader at the start of my sophomore year.
As a wow leader, you go through a quarter long training experience that takes 3 hrs/week plus some extra events. Then you come back to school about a week early for some more training and then for WOW! It’s a very unique experience, but i’ll Try to summarize as best I can.
Pros:
*great way to make friends
*teaches leadership skills
*teaches you to deal with and talk about some tough stuff (substance abuse, depression, sexual assault, etc.) in a mature way
*volunteer hours
*looks good on resumes (leadership + volunteering)
*have a lot of fun and make amazing memories!
Cons:
*time commitment, both during training and before school
*your Wowies will depend on you for help/advice long after the week, so your son should see it as a long term commitment rather than a 1-week thing
*physical exhaustion. As a wow leader, you get up at 6 am and go to bed at 2 am. You’re busy all day every day for a week and it can take it’s toll. I ended up getting very sick during the week and it took about a month to recover because of this.
*mental exhaustion. It can be hard to be “on” and entertaining a group for a full week, especially with little sleep
*cost. Be prepared to spend money on snacks for your Wowies, craft supplies (to make shirts, signs, etc.) and anything else you plan
At the end of the day, being a WOW leader was an amazing experience for me and I highly recommend it. It made me so much more confident in myself, I gained valuable life skills, and I made some amazing friends during the experience. That being said, I chose not to do it again because the time commitment and physical toll it took on me would be too much as a junior in engineering (I had harder classes to worry about than I did as a sophomore).
Only your son can know whether this experience is right for him! If he does choose to be a WOW leader, my advice would be to choose a CO that he can rely on and to just have fun with it!
@CalPolyAnon, that was very helpful. Thank you. This sounds very much like what my son has been telling. He is still friends with his WOW leader from the beginning of the year and she has been honest about why she did it, why she recommends doing it, and why she will NOT being doing it again. Your stories are similar.
He is most likely doing it and I think he’ll be good at it. Your list really helps me see what I can do as a parent to support him. I appreciate the feedback. Take care.