Upperclassmen this year had a direct role in welcoming first-years to campus, through sharing their experiences in a Voices of Whitman presentation.

The program was added to the first-year opening week orientation this year, occurring on Aug. 26 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. All first-year students were required to attend the program with their sections and resident assistants.

The program was the work of Bookstore Director Douglas Carlsen, Stuart Religious Counselor Adam Kirtley, Associate Dean of Students Barbara Maxwell and Assistant Director of Residence Life and Housing Sean Gehrke. Seven Whitman students shared their own personal experiences of how they have changed since coming to Whitman in the program.

Sophomore Missy Navarro decided to participate after reading an e-mail sent to the student listserv last semester, even though she didn’t consider her experience “all that diverse.”

Navarro spoke about her experience in a high school where student interactions remained extremely cliquish and people rarely left the constraints of their social status.

“There was a lot of prejudice against people who were different from the in-crowd,” Navarro said of her high school.

After Navarro came to Whitman, she felt like she was able to break the image that she had fenced herself into.

“When you’re starting out in college, it’s a really different experience and you don’t know what to expect,” Navarro said. “But when you hear stories from other people, it just kind of gives you a little more confidence, and let’s you know that everything’s going to be okay.”

Navarro had a number of students approach her after the program and tell her how grateful they were to know somebody felt similar to them. Because of the positive feedback, Navarro wants to see the Voices of Whitman program come back again in future years.

Sophomore Elena Gustafson, another contributor to the program, agreed.

Gustafson spoke during the program about her experience growing up in Los Alamos, and how she feared Whitman students would associate her with the atomic bomb. However, after being at Whitman for awhile, she learned to appreciate her roots and share what she loved about her background with others.

“Some first-years might think they’re not sure about their choice of Whitman or college in general, or just feel scared, so each of these stories will hopefully connect to the students out in the audience,” Gustafson said. “All the speeches were trying to hopefully touch somebody in the audience and inspire them to keep going.”

Sophomore Brennan Jorgensen, a student adviser in Anderson Hall, attended the Voices of Whitman presentation with her section.

“I think my residents could really connect well with the different perspectives here,” Jorgensen said. “In our discussion after the Voices, there were lots of tears, and everybody really opened up.”

Many first-years said that they enjoyed the program.

“I was really surprised by how much I liked it,” said first-year Heather Ferguson. “It actually helped me realize that transitioning into college life is difficult, but it gets better.”

First-year Michael Scigliano also liked the personal narratives, but had a few criticisms of the program.

“I liked the essays, but I just didn’t like the fact that the overreaching part of it [was] that I’m really going to enjoy the college life and what I can expect from it,” Scigliano said. “I just kind of wanted to experience it for myself … it seemed like all of orientation week was telling me how much I’m going to enjoy college.”