Observations & Interviews

NOTE : Names of people interviewed have been changed to preserve anonymity.

1. A Leader of Orientation Program - Jane Judy Jetson

Jane Judy has been working with the Freshman Orientation program for two consecutive years of being an undergraduate at MIT. She genuinely enjoys meeting the freshman when the semester starts and sharing her insights on what it's like to be at MIT. Jane  Judy claims that it's the best part of her semester. Through the program she has engaged in several activities including dance performances, theater roles and various sports activities. The program sets up groups of roughly ten to twelve freshman assigned to one orientation leader. She especially likes nights when her group can go out to dinner across the Bridge or around Harvard Square.

Dinner nights can sometimes be impromptu. The orientation goes on for a week but halfway through the week, the schedule is more flexible and lenient. The week's schedule does not include a single mandatory dinner night. Rather, freshmen are encouraged to get to know others in their group by going out to dinner with them. On such nights when a group plans to go out with Jane Judy, she says, "I never carry cash on me and neither do several of the freshman. I have a check book but I noticed the freshman aren't prone to use one either. For most of them it's their first time eating with a group of people they just met. Dinner can be at times awkward and it is up to the leader to make the freshmen feel comfortable.We try to be organized about how the bill gets paid but the worst case scenario is friends pay for friends and figure out who gets paid back later." She admitted that it could be a messy situation and has no idea how to make things work out much more smoothly.

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