First Lets go back to the year 2015…

Young and Confused Julian

When I enlisted in the military, I was assigned my first duty station i.e. the location I would  be working at for the next two years. On August 29, I would be arriving at a U.K airport, and 21 year old Julian would then have to make my way from the airport to U.K base without service (sim card didn’t work in a new country), then have a long list of things to do as soon as I arrived to my new base (If I made it there), such as get a new I.D card, give in my previous medical and professional records, fill out financial documents, etc. On top of that, I’m in a new country, by myself, with a new geography, with new customs, rules, cultures, etc. Without a sponsor, I literally would have gotten back on the plane, or gotten into a taxi to Scotland. But the reality was, I had a sponsor there waiting for me (mine was particularly efficient), with food, because he knew I’d be hungry when I arrived, new currency to give me, a new Sim card for my phone, and pretty much mentored me until I got the hang of my surroundings, both on the new base and outside the base. He taught me how to act, where I should go, what I needed to get done first, and how to do it. He told me about a time with no sponsor where there, and he got in a cab, managed to get to the front of the base, but had no accessible money to pay the cab driver (the bill was like 200 pounds sterling). So he was off to a bad start.

Present Day Julian

When I had my next duty station in Louisiana two years later, My sponsor was pretty much non-existent. I remember how much I hated the Felling, and how I never wanted anyone to feel like that, especially If I could do something about it (I became a sponsor soon after for new military arrivals). When I arrived to Baruch, I was alone again. I used the printer around the corner from Baruch until a year in, until I discovered that there were printers not only in the library but on several other floors in my main building. I had to manually walk around in circles around the campus from place to place to discover each restaurant and its proximity to the school (I made it back late to class or just bailed on my food order entirely), and many more misadventures. But I’m not the only one. Many people who signed up for the students veterans club (which has a sofa that you can lie down in if you have long breaks in between classes) didn’t realized there was such a club until their last year of college.  They would show up late for classes because they couldn’t find the correct room. Same with the bursar’s office. and the gym, and the clubroom area. You see where im going with this.

Does the confusion have to be a right of passage?

So When I arrived to Baruch I made it a personal mission to take an hour before or after my class to get to know the area, walk on every floor of the campus, and familiarize myself with my surroundings (military experience came into play). However, many freshman students are confused when they start college in a new campus, they are often scared and intimidated, confused about where certain offices or classrooms are, what things they need accomplished, not just academically (homework and such) but as a new students enrolled at a new university. They don’t have the time or the confidence to just walk around, ask people, and explore the campus. In fact, the real problem is that most students don’t know what they don’t know. By that I mean, even if they had the time to get to know the campus in and out early on, they would even know where to start. 

Possible solution

If each campus had a program/app, where each student has the opportunity to sign up for a personal college guide/sponsor. This person will message them, meet up with them, walk them to their first classes, give them the in and outs of the campus, what places are good to eat around the campus, where the club room, bursar, department, library is, introduce them to new people, help the student create a list of things they need to get done (get I.D card, Talk to the Bursar, how to sign up for the printers) and more. I know what your thinking, its a bit traditional, I mean personalized sponsors sounds like something that might have crashed an burned back at a large campus like Harvard back in the 60s or something. But maybe were ready for it again. I imagine something along the lines of: In its initial stage before it’s well known. Early on when the student gets accepted by their college of choice, they also receive an email telling them to sign up for the (Insert app name here) using their new I.D number (or something else). From there they will have access to a social media site tailored specifically for freshman students who get to choose their junior or senior student based on their profile, and create a conversation with them about what time they would like to meet on their first day of college and what experience they always wanted out of a college experience. There is still more to this idea but this is just a preliminary concept solution to the problem stated above. What do you guys think? Is this a problem you faced during your college experience? Let me know in the comments below.

Also initial working title for the app/concept will be:  Scoop U.