By Stephanie Smith

Members of the Student Orientation Staff returned from the Southern Regional Orientation Workshop in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with four awards. Two of the awards were for the students and two were for Danielle F. Bristow, Coordinator of New Student Programs.

Students received a fifth place plaque in the skit competition in their first year of participating in this division. They competed against 17 other schools and were scored on criteria such as creativity, choreography, and theme development.

Bristow said: “We were excited that we placed in the skit competition, especially after Alabama State University went before us and practically had the same skit as we did. I had pretty much convinced everyone that we had no chance of placing in the skit competition, so it was a nice surprise.”

Lea Thurman wrote and directed the skit.

The next award won by the students was the first place plaque in the Spirit Category. Each attending school voted for first, second, and third place.

Kelly Winters, a Pan-African/Sociology double major and junior at U of L, said they won because “we cheered for all of the other teams as well as ourselves.”

“I’ve never heard so much cheering in two days,” said junior marketing major Sarah Daniel.

Bristow said: “It was evident that U of L students had a huge impact on the 60+ other schools in attendance by being friendly and networking with other students during and in-between sessions.”

The final two awards, designated to Bristow, were Honorable Mention for Outstanding Advisor/Director and sixth place for an educational workshop that she conducted with three other professionals from the region.

Students in the SOS expressed their delight that Bristow received these awards. “We love Danielle!” said J.P. Davis.

Over 1200 orientation leaders and professionals from nine states attended the conference, held March 15th-17th. The University of Louisville was represented by 16 students and two staff members.

Various lectures and workshops were available for students as well as time for the groups to learn more about each other.

Three keynote speakers were at the conference.

Curtis Zimmerman gave a speech on “Living Life at Performance Level.”

Brent Scarpo discussed and showed a documentary entitled “Journey to a Hate Free Millennium” looking at the subject of hate through the eyes of Matthew Shepard, Columbine High School, and the family of James Byrd.

Dr. Sharon E. Whittaker spoke at the banquet about how to get the most out of your college experience.

There were five different workshop times, with a total of 55 workshops offered over the course of the weekend. Topics ranged from team-building, orientation leader selection, special programs at orientation, orientation leader training, and more.

Sarah Daniel said, “While we were there we learned to work well with each other…I think that happened for a lot of people.”