Orientation is winding down as we head into convocation today.  It’s been an amazing week for us because our amazing Admissions Docents have also been leading orientation groups as Orientation Docents.  As a former RA I’ve been more than thrilled to partner with our Co-Curricular Life office to help make this happen, and I think our Docents have really benefitted from the additional training and the realization that our work during the year in this office translates into this:  bringing 207 new to Sweet Briar students on our campus to become a part of this amazing legacy, to call this place home.

Last night our Dean of Admissions (aka, my boss) hosted a dinner to thank the Docents for all of their hard work.  It was incredible–homemade lasagna, rolls, salad, and an incredible peach-raspberry dessert.  AMAZING!  So thank you to our amazing Docents–I’m proud and honored to serve as your adviser, and a BIG thank you to Ken and Beth for welcoming us into your beautiful home and hosting an incredible kick off to what will undoubtedly be an incredible year.

But in the meantime, if you are moving your student right this moment, or if you’re gearing up for Saturday, just remember to smile, and in the words of my favorite Finding Nemo Character…

As we count the days (Days, people, DAYS!) until our class of 2015 moves in, we as a community are gearing up to support them as then start their journey here at SBC.  One of the ways we do that is through our point of contact program, which is a program where faculty and staff members are paired up with incoming students to help be an adult on campus that they can go to if they have questions about anything: registering for classes, where a building is, where the best cup of coffee can be located, who has the best candy jar, and those sorts of things.  With being on campus more this year, I was very excited to sign up to be a POC, and have two wonderful students, EW and AM, who have already asked wonderful questions!  I’m so thrilled to get to know them more, and to see the wonderful things they’re going to do here at SBC.

So whether your gearing up to move in shortly, or your discovering Sweet Briar for the first time, know this–we certainly have your back!

I can remember the week leading up to move-in day eleven years ago very clearly and vividly in my head.  One of the things that was most memorable was the mixed tape one of my high school classmates had made us as a graduation present.  When I was packing, I was listening to it;  when we were saying our “final” goodbyes, it was playing in our cars;  and as my family piled into that very loaded, and very uncomfortable golden Chevy truck (which subsequently had the back end rust off a mere year later–a fact my father still likes to blame of my overwhelming amount of “stuff” we carried to VA!) it was what played in my headphone almost the entire way down.  It was truly the soundtrack to my summer and those first few days of college.

While I know I may not be as “hip and with it” as I was in my youth, but I do know that music is incredibly powerful, and I wanted my students to have at least the start of a 2011 VA or Bust soundtrack.  But mass producing mixed CD’s sounded like a lawsuit waiting to happen, so I figured out how to do the next best thing–create a playlist on iTunes.

My hope for my students is that in these next 31 days they don’t get so wrapped up in the going that they don’t take the time to appreciate where they are right now.  Yes, great things do rest on the horizon we call college;  however, you are on the precipice of something great, and life as you know it will never be the same.  So go slow these next thirty one days, be kind to your parents, siblings, guardians, friends, dogs, don’t wish away the summer because soon you’ll have more homework than you’ll know what to do with!  And most importantly, be kind to yourself–it’s ok to feel excited, or overwhelmed, or terrified, or sad, or any mix of those emotions.

You are on the precipice of something great, and the good news for you is you have an incredible community who will support you, and will want to get to know you in 31 days.  We’re not going anywhere, and we’ll be here when you get here, I promise.

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In the meantime, jam on, Ladies!  And if anyone out there has suggestions for awesome road-trippin’, first time going to college, etc etc songs they’d have on their playlist, then by all means–please share!!

• Clean out my office.  As you can see from above, it looks every bit as frazzled as I feel
• Tackle my inbox.  It’s not pretty, but it will be cleaned out by the end of the week!
• Start wrapping my brain around travel
• Wrap up details for VPCW–it will be here before we know it!

One of my good friends from my sister class here at SBC sent me the amazing link about how to talk to little girls in order to help foster and promote strong, independent, free thinking women.  Earlier today I had the good fortune to be in on a planning meeting for our soon-to-be-official Performing Arts open house with our very own CEG and two of our very dynamic female Performing Arts professors (talk about being in a room surrounded by smart women!), and I’m so pumped to be involved on this project (and I can’t wait to share details when they’re ready!)!  And then the icing on the cake, someone out there used the search term “smart sweet briar girls” and found their way to this little corner of the blogosphere.

Does it get any cooler than that?!

My coach used to tell us constantly, “Smart women play field hockey, and exceptionally smart women play hockey at Sweet Briar.”  I think smart women in general, hockey or not, choose Sweet Briar.  How can you not when you have a 9:1 student to faculty ratio, 3200 acres of gorgeous land, and a community solely dedicated to the success of our young women, of YOU?

So I hope you’re have a Smart Women day too–I’d love to hear what you do to foster smart women around you!

• While I don’t hold a lot of stock in Titles–I really believe it’s the quality of your work and the presence of your work ethic that makes a difference–I was very happy to receive the news that I’m now an Associate Director of Admissions.  Personally and Professionally I am just thrilled, and thought you all might be excited to know as well.
• Today is my second day back from a three week Staycation.  What do Admissions Counselors do on a staycation?  Well, I invite you to check that out here–I warn you, it involves lots, and lots of baked goods.
• We graduated the Class of 2011.  Words don’t do justice how I feel about this group–they’re amazing, wonderful young women and they will be missed dearly;  however, they are going to change the world, and I’m excited to see all the wonderful things they are going to do!
• The biggest change, however, is that I have taken over the event planning position here in our office.  This is going to mean a variety of different things, but the main things will be my travel is going to be downsized, and I will be planning all of the admissions events on campus, like our Fall Open Houses, Accepted Applicants Weekends and the like.

Lots and lots of big professional changes here, but I’m really excited to see what this year brings and the opportunity to meet the next batch of Sweet Briar Women.  Since a lot of my responsibilities here will be shifting and evolving, I hope you all will bear with me as I share some of that here on the blog.

Happy Tuesday from Sunny and Beautiful Sweet Briar!

The second, the trailer (and inside look) into our Faculty Show!  

So last night’s Glee was amazing, and Chris Colfer sang one of my favorite show tunes of all time.  The song always reminds me of SBC and this time of year–the bittersweet feelings of the end of a chapter, but the beginning of a new one, realizing that the seniors came in as girls and are leaving as women, and just an opportunity to reflect on my own time here at the Briar.  So, for your enjoyment this dreary morning, a little Sunset Boulevard