New students arrived on campus last Wednesday, bombarded by throngs of cheering Seniors, ready to take on a weekend packed with Opening of School Orientation activities and a variety of community meetings.
Susan Esty, Dean of Students and Residential Life, celebrated how a general love for the Andover community propelled a smooth transition for new students. Specifically, Etsy emphasized the amount of people and diversity of groups who embraced orientation.
“I love that students are so involved in orientation and welcoming and supporting new students. I think that we have a really large number of students involved and so I like that we involve student leaders from across campus not from any one particular. It’s not just Blue Keys who raise their hands to be orientation leaders but it’s everybody. It’s the proctors and prefects, it’s the team captains, it’s CaMD leaders. There’s just so many people involved and I think that’s one of the beauties of this school, and one of the things that’s probably most appealing to new students,” said Esty.
David Porto ’26, a Prefect in Rockwell House, spoke on his experience of being a part of Orientation for the first time. He commented on his responsibilities as prefect and appreciated the ability to meet incoming students from a different standpoint on campus.
“I was at registration on the day that the new international students were coming in, and it felt really nice to get to talk to new students, ask where they’re living, what they are doing for sports and things like that. It just felt nice to meet people…It’s a totally different perspective, because I know sort of what they’ve been through, and now I get to see what the Prefects went through,” said Porto
Annie Zhao ’26 described her impressions of Andover throughout the Opening of School as a new Upper. She reflected on the positive feelings brought forth by the community and amazement towards the many resources the school offers.
“The first few days at Andover were very fruitful. I met a lot of new friends and phenomenal teachers. This is not my first time in Andover because I came here in January but Andover has never ceased to impress me everyday with all its facilities, its hospitality, and I love every aspect of it. Generally, I felt very welcomed and my heart was very full because of all the warmth everyone gave,” said Zhao.
Lucas Achecar ’28 reflected on his first days on campus, recalling the excitement of the Matriculation Ceremony and noting how he enjoyed being able to take in the size of the grade.
“[Matriculation] was really fun. The ceremony was great. Getting to see everyone in my grade, and when we got to see everyone in our cluster was also really fun. We all got to get our matriculation awards together. We could be with our friends and we could meet other people from our cluster so that was nice…I [also] liked the team building stuff that we did on Sunday. They gave us random groups instead of groups that we were friends with so I was able to step out of my comfort zone,” said Achecar.
Esty discussed the enormity of Opening of School, mentioning that she didn’t have a favorite Orientation event since they were all realized through a myriad of moving parts behind the scenes.
“Everything, from meeting your advisor to dorm meetings to Blue Keys inviting you to dinner. There are so many layers to what happens to you in those first couple of days…It’s a huge undertaking every year. The Opening of School is full of these signature events like orientation that involves everyone. I wouldn’t want to comment on one event over the other, it takes a whole village,” said Esty.
As a returner, Andrew Liu ’27, spoke about Orientation with a lens of familiarity with campus. Liu expressed admiration for the Juniors, as he appreciated their courage to step outside of their comfort zone in asking questions and interacting with their peers.
“I felt like freshman year was a lot of just figuring out who was even in my grade, but Lower year it was like I know the faces of more people now and I know who my friends are. It felt more stable than freshman year…I was really impressed by the freshmen because a lot of them were asking the right questions and trying to situate themselves, and I kind of felt like it was great to see all the freshmen trying to find new friends. I look at them and I think maybe I should be doing that too,” said Liu.
