One of the most important moments that freshmen students must encounter is orientation. Orientation is a transition system made for recent high school grads to seamlessly transition them into the college world. From campus tours to social events and family sessions, orientation is crucial for the first-year experience, and it takes a lot of passion from student leaders to get the job done! Meet Emanuelle De Oliveira ‘26 and Easton Dundore ‘25, the Orientation Student Directors.
Little do most people know, Emanuelle and Easton served in Orientation before they stepped into the role of leaders. “I did orientation core staff last year,” said De Oliveira. “It was super stressful, but the small moments with students, through worship or conversation, inspired me to continue.” Dundore added, “I felt called to it. Orientation is stressful and intense, but it’s also life-giving. Seeing 350 students passionate about Gordon and community was refreshing.”
On the outside, success for orientation can look like an event execution, but there is a lot more than just events. “Our main job is setting up our team for success,” Dundore explained. “Most of orientation comes down to our incredible O-crew leaders and their ability to engage students and transition them to a community. And the people supporting our O-crew leaders are our Core staff. The reason why we started working on Orientation in July is to really set it up so that they get to come to campus, settle themselves in, and then welcome our new students out of being prepared and feeling just ready to use their skills to the best of their ability. So practically what that looks like is doing all the boring things. So, making the biggest Excel sheets that have every detail for every single event and details—that’s CTS, Physical Plant, catering, rendering equipment.” De Oliveira and Dundore credited Casey Knight, Director of Signature Events at Gordon College, for her support. De Oliveira added, “We email everyone—that includes students, faculty, staff, housing, student life, student engagement, vendors. We worked with a total of 24 campus offices. Our job was planning every second of orientation, down to the nitty-gritty.”
With the amount of hard work and dedication to make orientation successful, there were some challenges that came along the way. “The biggest challenge to us was when Abram Erickson, the Director of Student Activities, left,” De Oliveira shares. “Abram is such an amazing person to work with, and he makes doing your job so much fun. And even after he left, he was still such a big resource to us. He was like, ‘Anything you need, I am here for you.’ He was always there through cell phone and text.”
Another challenge, she explained, was feeling the toll of constant planning. De Oliveira described how “by the time you get to orientation, your head is exhausted. With all the details, planning, and worrying and thinking, ‘Is this going to go exactly as we planned? Or not?’ It can sometimes cause us to not be present. It can be a challenge to find that intentionality, especially during orientation week, and I had to rely on my team and God to pull that out of me.” Dundore added, “It’s easy to forget the purpose. It’s really easy for these events that are so meaningful to parents and students to just become things to check
off. And so, I think it’s for us to be intentional with living in the moment and experiencing those moments with families was a challenge.”
Despite the challenges and details of orientation, Easton and Emanuelle felt that the heart of a successful orientation is intentionality with their team, which included Core Staff and O-crew leaders. “Part of the reason that we were able to work well with our team is because we had so much time to intentionally plan and pour into the other details of orientation beforehand. So, when we had that week and a half where our core staff and O-crew leaders were showing up, we had that week and a half to intentionally pour into them because we already poured into everything else. Additionally, we did a lot of intentional training this year like ‘How can Easton and I support you?’ or ‘What does it look like for us to pour into others so that other people can pour into others?’”
Throughout the process of planning orientation and getting ready for the first-year students’ arrival, the Orientation Student Directors share their one memorable moment. De Oliveira shares, “On Saturday when we had our orientation kickoff, the first big event where the students worship and discuss who does God say you are? What is your identity in Christ? And they write prayers on sticky notes, and we as a team pray into that. We also did the song ‘I Thank God,’ which was very special for me because that was the song of my freshman class. So, it was a full circle moment.” Easton Dundore shares, “The Gathering of Affirmation and Assurance. It’s the scarfing ceremony and at the end we sing ‘Cornerstone,’ which is a beautiful song. Looking at the crowd, it just felt like a declaration over this class—that Christ is our rock, and we have nothing to fear.”
Part of the fun of orientation is the traditional orientation kickoff dance. When asked, “Who was behind the song choice and dance?” the Orientation Student Directors revealed, “We were going for a nostalgic song in the 2000s. So, we asked, what was nostalgic in the 2000s? Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe.’ So, we picked the song and Dominic Hendricks ‘26 and Violet Manson ‘26, and other core staff members choreographed and wrote the parody song.”
With the thoughtful and intentional planning of orientation, the Orientation Student Directors share their most rewarding part of the process. De Oliveira says, “The most rewarding parts of orientation are always the moments you have with students. And seeing how well received orientation was by our students makes it so rewarding. And seeing the passion that they have for Gordon and for God and seeing how excited they are to be here, I felt so overjoyed.” Dundore also shared, “The most rewarding part was the reception, the authenticity and vulnerability with which our students showed up. We could plan the most incredible events, but if the students weren’t willing to actively engage, it would have been a flop. Seeing them lean in so fully reminded me that it wasn’t just about what we did, but about what we did in partnership with what the Lord was doing in their lives before bringing them to Gordon.”
Being an Orientation Student Director is a leadership role that will challenge and shape you. It’s an opportunity to be modeled deeply into leadership and gain new skill sets and hone the ones you already have. “As a Communication Arts major who loves planning events, orientation stretched me more than anything else I’ve ever done. I’ve planned plenty of events during my three years here, but nothing this big, this detailed, or this demanding. It pushed me beyond what I thought my limits were. But more than that, I’ve never done something that felt so rewarding. I saw the Lord move in powerful ways, in both big and small moments, and it reminded me that orientation isn’t just logistics. It’s physical, spiritual, and emotional work. It stretched me as a person and deepened my capacity to connect, serve, and steward my gifts well.” Dundore added, “‘Steward’ is the right word. Orientation is weighty; it shapes how new
students experience Gordon, and it can even define their four years here. There’s a spiritual heaviness to leading something like this. It’s also learning to hold the tension, letting the Lord work while also handling the logistics, was something I had never experienced before. The Lord had already prepared these students for Gordon before they even knew it themselves. Orientation was just the moment where they got to step into the community God was shaping for them. That’s heavy, but it’s also freeing because it meant we could focus on what we were gifted to do, and trust God to do the rest. Whether we succeeded or not, He was still going to move in their lives. I’ve never had another job like that.”
As orientation student directors, part of the job is not just preparing the transition for first-year students but also setting an example for the next leaders who will one day take the role next year. When asked, “What advice would you give to future orientation student directors applying for this role?” Dundore answered, “This isn’t about you. Orientation isn’t about getting stage time, having a cool title, or adding something to your resume. It’s about what the Lord is doing. It’s about being present, being available, and having a genuine love for the Gordon community.” De Oliveira says, “If you’re on the fence about applying, just do it. Don’t overthink the logistics; those will always be there no matter what role you take on. Instead, ask how God might use you in this position, and think about how rewarding it will be at the end to see what He does through you as a vessel. But honestly, is orientation ever really over? In some ways, we’re always being oriented. And that’s kind of the point.”
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