3000 freshmen and their new college life

A series of activities for freshmen successfully ended on September 3. Students and teachers recalled shared memories with fragmented images projected on the wall of the Second Academic Building for the four- day period.

On the first day, full of anxiety and expectation, the freshmen came to the Downtown campus. After a warm welcome from seniors, the freshmen received encouragement from instructors, and interacted with new classmates by taking part in an interpersonal map activity, which helped freshmen to break the ice.   

On the second and third days, class representatives expressed their gratitude and showed their respects to the teachers participating in the ceremony, pleased by the students, behavior and enthusiasm. on the other hand, the teachers gave three gifts to the freshmen, including a souvenir red and black T-shirt given, hoping it will inspire them to live up to the university motto “Unto a full grown man”. A flexible name badge holder symbolizing going with the flow, and also a reusable bag to remind freshmen to care for the Earth were also given. At the end of the activity, freshmen brought down the house with an activity featuring huge balls with school’s motto.  

As students of Soochow University, freshmen finished their course selection and registered in the following days. The courses were desighed to help students “learning successfully” in six different ways, including “recognition of campus” “interpersonal relationship support” “stimulating learning” “getting to know resources” “career planning” “mental and physical heath”.

In the climax of the “first mile”, ten students engaged in rope jumping to build up a strong chemistry among in a vigorous and enthusiast display; besides, they also showed their energy by taking on the playground. Finally, all students wrote down their dream on a piece of paper, folding the paper in the form of a plane and everyone launched their planes fly into the air to symbolize fulfillment of their dreams.

Those days, the seniors led the juniors to take part in the “first mile”,hoping the juniors could embrace their brand-new college life and determine the way they will go. The seniors also prepared performances and a song entitled “One Thousand Suns.” Both the teachers and the seniorS encourage the freshmen to explore their own lives.