Orientation Day - Experience report from a BAM assistant

2023. September 28. 09:40

September 4-5, 2023. A new chapter for freshmens and the start of a new semester for existing students.

For the first time, the orientation day became a two-day program. A few years ago, when I was a freshman at school, this event consisted of telling about our most important tasks. (Such as enrollment and Neptun.) This event lasted for a few hours and afterwards they said that we would expect everyone back for their first day of school tomorrow. Now the programme has changed.

Registration started at 8 am on September 4th. Every student who came to the school got a small gift: a universal water bottle (for everyone in their own language), a brochure about the school and a discount meal ticket (+ a map showing where it is) for the restaurant in the knowledge center. The first program of the day was an Erasmus+ orientation for international students. There, they were told what their most important tasks will be while they are studying here. After that, a faculty greeting was held from the school's Dean and one of the school's instructors. After that, the future students took part in a city tour held by the Student Union. On the tour, they met with the following locations: the Central Registrar’s Office (this was mostly necessary because of their student ID card), the Rector’s Office building, the knowledge center (main reason was the library), the National Theater of Pécs and the Széchényi Square. The trip was a bit rushed because after the city tour there was a programme where they showed them how they can register to Neptun and all the important function of the site. After that, they only had one program left, which was the longest one: a training session held by the Head of Internationalisation. On this occasion, they had to do group tasks: some of them were funnier, but they came across tasks that they had to think about. That was the end of the first day.

At 8 am in the morning on September 5th, we welcomed the students back with even more programs. Their very first program was with CAL (Centre for Applied Learning). Two of their colleagues told us what they do. For Example: Openup (which will be more necessary for their later internship) were said here or the Hackathon. Due to the lack of time, they couldn't talk about it much, but they got the main points across. The second program of the day was called "ice-breaker" party. Under this course the Student Union (who gave them the city tour yesterday), ESN and the Dancing University introduced themselves. The program was similar to CAl. After that, the team was divided into two parts: the exchange students and those Hungarian students who are learning their courses in English. The Hungarian students took part in a University tour, where they walked around the school, telling them what where you can find. For example, the study department, the international office or even where their classes will be held. Until then, the foreign students took part in a Hungarian language class, where they could get to know the basics of the Hungarian language. For example, the Hungarian ABC. After that, they came from the Immigration office to tell them the most important things to do while they are here. Right after that there was another lesson about Moodle/Microsoft 365. Basically, in that session they showed everyone where they can find their educational material for the future. After the lunch break, the exhange students also took part in a University tour. The last activity of the day was an optional program called Laser Tag. The game was easy to understand: 15 people fought in two teams. Here comes the question: who is going to be the winner? The team with the most point. One round lasts 20 minuntes and after that there was a 10 minute break.

These two days were full of adventures and experiences. I hope that in the future there will be more experiences like this.