University Libraries

As a relatively new UD faculty member who now teaches only graduate students, I enjoyed serving as a faculty team leader for UD's New Student Orientation! My team had an American undergraduate and a Chinese graduate student to help with our group of incoming Business majors; the intercultural exchange was wonderful for all in one preparatory meeting and the four team sessions. The Chinese student kept the ice-breaker game pieces to teach her Chinese friends the customs of Americans; we Americans learned how Chinese track points in a game by creating a Chinese character one stroke at a time. The Chinese grad student and I followed up by eating lunch together this week as one of many new friendships that began with the NSO!

Convocation was another highlight of NSO for me. Being an NSO team leader prompted me to pay more attention and even to take notes for the first time at Convocation. In the group discussion at our team meeting afterwards, we all had been impressed with Laura Huber's triple major and trip to Liberia, as well as Dr. Bill Trollinger's story about the KKK burning crosses and setting off 12 bombs here at UD in 1923! Dr. Molly Schaller's challenge to imagine ourselves five years from now was taken to heart by many. Great speakers and team meetings had set a wonderful tone for the start of the academic year.

-Gloria Dodd, Lecturer/Researcher for the Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute