Hello Champions! I am super excited to be writing my first post for all of you this Summer. For this, I wanted to introduce myself to all of you, and also introduce you all to our staff.
First thing first, my name is Lindsey Bak and I am the Student Coordinator of the Champions Network. So I am that go to person for all of you! If you have any questions about Orientation, or general questions about Westfield, please ask! On top of writing these blogs for you, I have been working on creating the Champions Orientation for this summer also. This is my second year being involved with New Student Orientation, last year I was an Orientation leader for the Champions program. I have loved working as a part of this staff, especially working with Champions.
Outside of this role, I am also an RA in one of our Residents Halls, so your students will see me all around on campus. I am a double major in Secondary Education and History with a minor in psychology. I am a senior(I graduate in 2023), and oh my god I can’t believe that I am a senior. I still feel like I just started my first year here.
As a New Student Orientation Program, we have a staff of 40 people working to welcome you and your students to Westfield State! That staff is broken up into groups of our Professional Staff(my bosses), Student Coordinators(Me!) and also our Orientation Leaders. The Coordinator of New Student Orientation is Matt Dellea(best boss ever in my opinion. Sorry, my bias is showing).
There are a total of 5 Student Coordinators for this year’s program, and we all have different areas of focus. While I specifically work with you Champions, the rest of the Student Coordinators are focused more on the Student portion of New Student Orientation. We have a Student Coordinator of Student Life, who focuses on creating super fun events for your students to attend while Orientation is happening in September. These events are great for your students to meet other first year students! We also have a Student Coordinator of Academic Life. This person focuses on creating useful Academic strategy sessions that will be happening during your students Orientation. These sessions will help your students when starting college courses. We also have a Student Coordinator that is solely focused on communicating with your students. This Student Coordinator is sending all of the important information that your students will need to know before Orientation begins in the Fall(be sure to remind your students to check their email!). Our last Student Coordinator is focused on training and development for our Orientation Leaders. Our Orientation Leaders go through a training before the big event actually begins. We make sure to train our student leaders fully before meeting your students.
So now that I have introduced you all to the team a bit more, I want to welcome you officially to the Nest!! This is so exciting! I am so excited to meet you all and meet your students. My favorite part of my job is helping Champions through the adjustment to college. If I can help make it a little smoother, I know I have done my job right. So, if you have any questions please feel free to send me an email!
Starting in June, I will be posting a new blog for you all once a week! So keep a lookout for weekly posts about different aspects of Campus, either focused on Student Life, or Academics! These blogs will be written by either me or other students and staff. I hope that you all can learn a little bit more about us from a students perspective!
I can’t wait to see you all this summer, and I look forward to being a part of this new chapter in your students’ lives!
Lindsey Bak(She/Her/Hers)
Student Coordinator of the Champions Network
Residential Assistant – University Hall
Class of 2023