It’s the first day of classes. You walk into a cavernous lecture hall, with 200 unfamiliar faces that couldn’t be less interested in you. Your professor bustles in, and without so much as a “good morning,” starts droning about the syllabus, expectations, and exam dates. You try to introduce yourself to the person sitting two seats down from you, but notice they have both AirPods in and look like they’re nodding off. You sigh, get out your laptop, and resign yourself to a lonely semester.
This may be the experience for some first-year college students, but not those at the IU Indianapolis School of Health & Human Sciences (SHHS). Thanks to Bridge Week, a required part of the first-year experience at IU Indianapolis, students are given the chance to meet their peers and form relationships that will last throughout their college career and beyond—before they ever have to step foot into a lecture.
“My favorite part of Bridge Week has been all the connections we’re making right now,” said Jaylen Logan, a first-year SHHS health sciences student. “I feel like it’s doing exactly what it needs to do.”
For students in SHHS, Bridge Week also presents an opportunity to form strong relationships with the faculty of their programs and upper-level students, who work Bridge Week as advisors and peer mentors for new students. Adam Schwehn, a peer mentor for SHHS health sciences, believes that his role is one of the most important parts of Bridge.
“Having peer mentors gives incoming students a person that’s halfway between student and professor,” Schwehn shared. “I can tell them problems that I’ve had and things that helped me succeed, in hopes that they won’t fall into those problems themselves. It’s not the same when that advice comes from a professor.”
Peer mentors of Bridge Week not only serve as role models for incoming students, but also inspirations. Abby Crow, a first-year tourism, event, and sport management (TESM) student, said that meeting upper-level students has made her look forward to her future college career.
“It’s given me a lot of motivation, knowing there are so many people who have only been here for a year—or two years—who have gotten job experience and volunteer opportunities all over the world,” Crow said.
The students in SHHS are presented with many options for volunteering and internships outside of the classroom, so another purpose of Bridge Week is to introduce these opportunities early.
“A lot of the stuff we’ve been doing is geared toward our majors,” said Kaylie Hanyzewski, a first-year kinesiology department student. “We had a Special Olympics presentation, plus have gotten to know the SITE [Skills for Independence, Transition, and Employment] students who we may work with later, so doors have really been opened for us already in just the first week we’ve been here.”
As incoming students now transition into the rest of their first year of college, Bridge Week will have helped them make new friends, form trusted and lasting relationships with mentors, and find ways to pursue their career goals. They will have walked into their first class confident that they can navigate college, add friends to their already budding friend groups, and set themselves up for a lively, rather than lonely, first semester.