My Life As A Freshman

At Longwood University, being a part of the Honors College isn’t just something stated on a piece of paper or resume. In the Cormier Honors College, being an honors student is a privilege that comes with many experiences and opportunities.

When I first found out I was accepted into the Honors College, I was overjoyed. I knew I would love being a part of such a special group at Longwood and meeting amazing people, both students and faculty. Shortly after I was accepted, I received an email saying I was invited to attend the honors retreat. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but I knew I should take advantage of this awesome opportunity.

In a later email, I found out the day the retreat started was also our move-in day. All of the honors students moved in four days before the rest of the freshmen arrived on campus. In those four days, I participated in so many different things and activities I can’t remember them all.

To name a few, I went on an outdoor high and low ropes course, met with my honors mentor and group on multiple occasions, played “zombie tag,” went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond and, lastly, watched the Match your Mentor Pageant.

In the pageant, each honors group met with their mentor and fellow group members and came up with a theme and a creative skit to perform. In the photo of this group, you’ll note they’re mostly wearing red. That’s because their theme was American pride. They were also singing the famous song Born in the USA during the photo. They later won a category at the end of night.

In the other photo, you see three girls who didn’t participate in the skit and decided watch instead. We chose to do this only because this event took place at the end of the night and we all pretty tired. However, I can honestly say watching all of the skits was so much fun and something I will never forget. Anyway, in the photo, the girls are Brittany Armstrong, Hannah Elmore and myself. All three three of us are freshmen, and I met them through the retreat, and Brittany is also one of my suitemates.

Through all of the crazy schedules and having some really long days, I still loved the Cormier honors retreat. I met a lot of my first friends at Longwood through the retreat and often find myself seeing familiar faces everywhere around campus because I met so many people. The retreat made me push my boundaries—or altogether break them down—and I learned a lot about myself during that time.

So, if you have the opportunity to apply for the Honors College, you totally should because is just might change your life.

My Longwood orientation was definitely a date I will always remember—from the beginning of the day (which for me was at 4 a.m.) to arriving on campus and experiencing all of the different activities, meetings and seminars.

Shortly after my family and I arrived on campus, the opening seminar was about to start. There were a couple of different speakers talking about a variety of topics, like a soon-to-be graduate’s point of view of his freshman year, to housing information, move-in day and much more. Listening to all of the different speakers I gained a lot of very important information, so I would say going to the opening seminar is vital to your orientation experience.

A lot of advice was also given to the Class of 2022. One bit of advice that stood out to me was the fact that college is what you make it and that you have to take the initiative to take advantage of all of the opportunities open to you. That really resonated with me, and I hope I always remember that.

After the opening session, we were asked to go outside and find a current Longwood student holding a sign with our major written on it. I went to the person holding the communications sign (I later learned his name was Andrew—he was really cool) and our group went to meet with a communications professor and then to a computer lab to fill out housing and meal plan forms online.

After that, much of the rest of the day was the students’ choice: We could visit specific colleges within Longwood, speak with admissions or financial aid, and everything in between.

My Longwood orientation experience was positive from all aspects. I think it is important for new students to attend to get information, but I also think it is important because there’s just a certain energy at Longwood that can’t be found in most places. The whole time while I was on campus, everyone I interacted with was so nice and helpful, and I could tell they really cared. That feeling of home and compassion is one of the aspects I like most about Longwood. Everyone here wants students to succeed, and the faculty will help them anyway they can.

Orientation was a lot of fun.

I met new people and learned from a professor I will have as a freshman for my CSDS (communication sciences and disorders) classes.

An exciting part of the day was picking up my Lancer ID card—I’m officially a Longwood student!

My favorite part of the day was after the welcome talk when we broke into groups by our majors. I go to go to the CSDS building, where an exciting part of the classroom is the “spinny” chairs. My peer mentor, Wesley, is a rising senior at Longwood and a CSDS major. It was nice to hear about the major from a student’s perspective. It made me happy to hear that CSDS is very rewarding and worth all the hard work.

I met another freshman, Brittany Napier, who is in my major. We will have two classes together, and we’re also in the Curry dorm together. It is going to be so nice seeing a familiar face besides my roommate.

My advice to future Longwood students to get the most out of orientation is don’t be afraid to meet new people! Also try to plan with your roommate to go on the same day so you can experience it all together.

I am so excited to kick off freshman year with Longwood traditions, especially Color Wars.

Coming in I was very nervous and confused about a lot of things, but everyone was super helpful and nice.

The day started off with chifilia minis, fun raffles and pretty much a huge pep rally. The top peer mentor spoke first. It was calming to find out he had struggled immensely at first but is now helping upcoming Lancers know everything will be OK and that just because some of us make mistakes it’s how we grow from them that matters. The housing department then gave this hilarious presentation and rules and regulations on living on campus.

We were then split up in groups by our majors and headed to our corresponding buildings. The education meeting was very informative: They handed out information on the Praxis and even gave out different pamphlets on the different majors describing the classes required.

We then went to the computer lab to take the language placement test. Don’t freak out like I did because I didn’t take a language in high school. The test proctor was very nice and even set me up to take American Sign Language.

Then we met up with our parents and had lunch. The new students were able to use their new Lancer ID cards, which made it official. Lunch was amazing, and the peer mentors sat with the families to answer all the questions we had.

Mrs. Mitchell in financial aid was very nice. She answered my hundreds of questions and didn’t even bat an eye. My mother, who has bad knees and can barely walk, requested a golf cart, and everyone involved bent over backwards for her.

Everyone was so nice, gracious and helpful it makes me excited to become a Lancer!

As a student-athlete, you’re expected to rise above and excel in everything you do. I believe I have accomplished that so far in high school and my first week at Longwood. However, some athletes have difficult obstacles to overcome sometimes—like me. I tore my ACL my senior season in high school, and I’m still going through physical therapy because I am only three months postsurgery. So I can’t participate yet, but I will be fully recovered before the spring. It has been moderately difficult getting around, but that’s what the golf carts are for!

I have a huge support system with my amazing family, lacrosse team and my coaches, so I don’t really think about my injury much, which is great! We start preseason next week, kicking it off at 6:30 a.m. with run tests and a lot of stick work for me :).

So far this week it has been busy, constantly on the move, going from one activity to another with the Honors College and then New Lancer Days.

Farmville may be a small town, but there is a lot to do on and off campus. My favorite thing is how Farmville has so many good places to eat and dine in at. I strongly encourage Macado’s, Charley’s and One19.

Yes, you may be thinking that balancing Honors College, lacrosse and even regular classes will be very time-consuming, but I think it will be fun and because, Why not? College is all about experiences, and, as you will learn, I love doing new things.

I have not been homesick because this does feel like home to me even though I am almost five hours away (right on the East Coast by Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina). But love grows with distance, right?

As it is very obvious, I am so excited to start my freshman year here as a student-athlete!

My name is Averee Gerold, and I am going to share with you my freshman experience at Longwood University.

First off, I am very new to this, so bear with me. I am freshman, Class of 2022, playing lacrosse at Longwood. As I’ve learned, being a student-athlete is very demanding, but it’s also a great opportunity to get close to new people and cultivate relationships. Starting back at the bottom as a freshman to me is very intimidating, but it encourages me to build my confidence and take on new adventures.

Before enrolling, I visited Longwood many times for sports clinics, camps and personal tours, and I have never felt more at home.

I recently experienced orientation. I met new people and was welcomed with positive energy from returning students. I could see my future as a Lancer right before. Yes, some people will say that orientation can be boring. But to me, I had the chance to see what I can accomplish and the future courses I will be taking.

The most memorable experience at orientation was hanging out with my future teammates and learning to take on the college life. Finding our way around was strenuous, but we managed. I am most excited about the first week of college and being welcomed with energy just as positive as I experienced at orientation.

The hardest part of college for me will be leaving home. I live in Wilmington, North Carolina, right on the East Coast about 10 minutes from the beach. I have developed so much in my hometown by learning who I am and what my interests are, building my closest personal relationships and being so close to my family.

With that said, I believe I can build the same characteristics here at Longwood. Being able to finally do things on my own takes courage and a great attitude. I am very eager to find out what is in store for me and my peers.

#GOWOOD

Hello Incoming Freshmen!

My name is La’Mya but you can call me Mya for short. (:

Today was Orientation Day at Longwood University, and I couldn’t have been more excited to be a part of the Lancer community. I know you’re thinking that you won’t make any friends—but trust me, that’s completely untrue. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Everyone is so nice and welcoming, there’s literally a smiling face on every corner.

Longwood gives you so many opportunities to meet new people. For example, they create a Facebook group for incoming freshmen to introduce themselves and also be able to find your potential roommate like I did. My roommate’s name is Hannah, and she’s honestly so cool and chill to be around. Even though I’ve only met her a few times I can tell we will be friends for a long time!

Once I arrived at orientation and got checked in, it was finally time to get my Lancer ID. I was so stoked because it’s like a golden KEY—you can’t get in anywhere without it. It makes it so official you know what I mean?

Sadly I had to get my ID card fixed because of a simple oopsie ): which made me have to get out of line and go to the Helpdesk. I was so upset because it was such a long line. I thought I was going to be like everyone else and have their ID in their hands—but not quite yet. Thankfully I went to the Helpdesk to fix my ID because I ended up finding another roommate by the name of Morgan. She had the same last name as I do, which was really cool.

As time passed by, we ended up bumping into each other after an event. Hannah and I were leaving to go to the next event, and Morgan asked if she could tag along. Of course, I said yes because I’m up for making new friends since we’re both kinda new here.

We began to chat to get to know each other a little bit more. I obviously saw a new friendship in the making with the three of us. It was such good vibes. I asked Morgan if she had a roommate, and she said no. I offered that she should be our suitemate, and she was totally up for it—which made me even more excited. We were getting along with each other so well you would think we already knew each other. We immediately exchanged numbers to keep in contact with each other.

It was all thanks to my having to go to the Helpdesk to fix my ID. Otherwise, we would’ve never crossed paths.

I’m super excited to rooming with Hannah and Morgan, and I hope our in-progress friendship will last as we go different paths in the future.

Ever since graduating high school in May, it never hit me that I was about to start one of the biggest transitions of my life. I had gone to the same school since kindergarten and never changed schools, so going to college would be the first real change in my academic career.  Luckily, I had already found someone who wanted to room with me, named Rusty, that I had met through Young Life. Rusty and I have been on campus many times, so when we showed up for orientation we knew exactly where to go.

We went to go get our lanyards and made our way to Willett Hall. Both sides of the bleachers were packed! After going to such a small school for my whole life, it was crazy to see so many people that would be freshmen just like me in the fall. The session in the gym was mostly about logistics and how to be successful in your freshman year. Right after the session in Willett ends, all of the students go outside to find a peer mentor holding a sign that says the major they would like to pursue or are interested in. I am passionate about working with children, so I go find the liberal studies sign.

After finding my group, we all go to take a language placement test and get our housing assignments. The housing part was easy because, as I said before, I already had a roommate that I knew. Finally, after the group had finished all of that, we headed to Hull Hall, which is the education building, where we held the liberal studies session. That session was about what students can expect while majoring in liberal studies and what classes they will have to take.

We got to go to lunch in the dining hall following our liberal studies session, which is always good! Then we had free time where you could choose what you wanted to see and there were sessions for the parents. I did a few things while my parents went to a session—like tour the Sharp residence hall. However, what was more important to me was talking to a staff member about the potential of playing basketball, either on the club team or the varsity team.  Basketball is the only thing that compares to working with children to me.

There were so many things that I got to do and many more things to listen to and think about. It was a long and fun day, but it really has me excited for what this next year has in store.