Day before our first new students move in for Pre-Orientation

In this Issue:

• Download the Wake Safe app to receive Campus Security Alerts
• Wake Forest launches a new digital guide to art collections, exhibitions and more
• For families attending our Pre-Orientation welcome receptions Friday 8/18 and Saturday 8/19
• Do you have a “Third Culture” student?
• What I learned from my own new student move-in

I’m back in the office now and trying to catch up. Pre-Orientation move-in starts for some students tomorrow, then Saturday for the rest. And then all other new students on the 23rd. Campus is hopping trying to get ready for this – so let’s jump right in to today’s news.

Download the Wake Safe app to receive Campus Security Alerts

My colleagues sent a message yesterday to parents and families about how you can now receive Campus Security Alerts via the Wake Safe app. Important to note: we will no longer send emails to parents and families with safety alerts – they will only go through the Wake Safe app, so please download it and enable notifications on your phone. Details here.

Wake Forest launches a new digital guide to art collections, exhibitions and more

Attention arts lovers! Wake Forest University collections and gallery exhibitions are now available in a new digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, a free arts and culture app created by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Bloomberg Connects app makes the University’s art accessible for both on-site and off-site visits through photo, audio and video features. Read more.

For families attending our Pre-Orientation welcome receptions Friday 8/18 and Saturday 8/19

As a reminder for our Pre-Orientation families, we have a 4 pm welcome reception for families on both Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th in the upper gym of the Sutton Center (Wellbeing Center). We hope you will attend if you are moving your new Deac in for Pre-Orientation.

The receptions start at 4 pm and the first portion of our time together is meant to allow you to meet other families with students doing Pre-Orientation. So when you arrive, you’ll make your nametag, then go ahead and mix and mingle, introduce yourself to other parents and family members, try to find folks doing the same Pre-Orientation program to make connections, etc. Please feel free to ask questions of any staff with gold nametags who are present, and have a little something to eat and drink. We will have brief remarks at 4:30, and then you can continue to mix and mingle and ask more questions or visit with new families you are meeting.

This is not a dressy reception – come casually! We know folks may be hot or tired from move-in. Come anyway!

Do you have a “Third Culture” student?

My friends from Global Programs and Studies (GPS) asked me to share this with the Daily Deacdom:

“Does your child find it challenging to answer the question “where are you from”? Are they a U.S. citizen who grew up abroad, moved around the world due to a parent’s career, or were raised within a multicultural or immigrant family? If yes, the Center for Global Programs & Studies (GPS) invites them (and you!) to have lunch with other first-year students who can relate on Thursday, August 24, 2023, during New Deac Week. Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are often caught between cultures because their multi-layered identities are not easily categorized on official documents. 

GPS aims to connect them with peers in order to find camaraderie while adjusting to the academic, social, and cultural aspects of WFU. Interested in learning more? Have your student submit this form to get connected and RSVP for the lunch. Contact Sandra Lisle McMullen at mcmullsl@wfu.edu or +1.336.758.4889 with any questions.”

What I learned from my own new student move-in

I have now experienced new student move-in as a mom (and not just as an administrator watching it with a more detached perspective). For those coming to move in their new students, here are a few things I learned that may be helpful.

• Be ready for your new student to get nervous, quiet, anxious the day before move-in. The reality might be hitting hard, and there could be a painful gap between “I’m packed” and “I’m waiting to move in and have nothing to do but overthink” where the nerves show themselves. For my kiddo at least, once we got to campus and had things to do, he was a lot less nervous.
• You might be a wreck – and that’s OK. In the same way nothing can really prepare you for bringing a newborn home, nothing really prepares you to send your first/only kid off to college. I held it together until the last 30 minutes before we left, and then I was trying to hide my tears so it didn’t freak my kiddo out. Confession: I cried most of the drive back from Raleigh. Cry if you need to. It’s OK.
• Somehow, your kid will make their space work. As you might recall, our kid is in a room that would make the smallest Wake room look palatial. Somehow we got it all his stuff in there and found a way to make it work.
• To be a good roommate, be scrupulous about not encroaching on “their” side of the room with your kid’s stuff. We didn’t get to meet the roommate because our kid moved in early, but I left a tiny gift and a note wishing him well for the start of school and left our contact info in case he ever needs to reach us.
• Be prepared for bruises and broken fingernails. I had delayed getting a manicure until after move-in so I didn’t chip the paint. Instead, I broke nearly every fingernail on one hand moving boxes in and trying to assemble stuff. I also banged my head on the bed frame (lofted) hard enough to draw blood, and gave myself a nasty shin bruise. (My husband joked that I managed to cover ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ all in the span of 4 hours).
• Plan a fun activity for your first night back at home without your kid. This was a genius suggestion from my therapist, also the mom of an only son. She encouraged me to do something that would make us happy and keep our minds off the empty house. We ended up going out with 6 other Wake friends for margaritas and the best queso and guacamole in town at The Porch, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. It was a relief to be able to laugh and cry and eat and drink with people we love.
• One of my dinner companions said at dinner – “what you did today was a big deal. This is something to celebrate – the launching of your child.” So give yourselves a pat on the back, moms and dads and aunties and uncles and tios/tias and grandparents and abuelos/as and loved ones. You made it to launch – and that is a big deal and to be celebrated.

Many thanks to all of you who were thinking good thoughts for us as we launched our only child. Your kindness buoyed me enormously and I am grateful to all of you who had great suggestions on how to adapt to the New Normal. Thank you!