The entire Oglethorpe campus is looked forward to welcoming the Class of 2014 when they move into their dorms and take the first steps of their college lives…beginning with orientation.

Ahh, college orientation…a time when new students prepare for the upcoming school year with a week-long crash course of the institution itself.  Like most colleges, orientation week for OU freshmen includes attending panel discussions on academic and student life, welcome parties, and an activities fair with representatives from student organizations vying for their interest.

The Oglethorpe difference begins in the early morning of day three—our Orientation Day of Service.  Unlike most freshmen across the country, OU freshmen rose early Monday morning, met for breakfast, and headed to Atlanta’s  Historic Grant Park Conservancy to assist the the 127-year-old  park in sprucing up and preparing for its annual Summer Shade Festival.  There, 300 new Petrels worked alongside upperclassmen and other volunteers to get the city’s oldest park in festival shape.

Oglethorpe’s Day of Service, an annual event, serves not only as a way for new students to get acquainted with one another, but  is a testimony to OU’s commitment to community service, something that has become signature to the Oglethorpe experience.

OU Freshmen at a past Orientation Day of Service.