Review the Fall Welcome schedule for each day and make note of the required events and the optional events you would like to attend.
Look out for any Teams messages or reminders from your TXSM.
Make sure you have a reusable water bottle with you
Wear your Fall Welcome nametag
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21
Download the WashU mobile app and WashU Safe app.
Add important numbers to your phone:
• WUPD: (314) 935-5555
• Habif: (314) 935-6666
• Uncle Joe’s: (314) 935-5099
• SARAH: (314) 935-5050
Follow @washutransitions on Instagram for tips, events, and deadline reminders alongside opportunities to engage with the transfer and exchange communities and the Class of 2028.
Locate the space(s) on campus you may use as a regular study spot outside of your room. Common study areas are:
• Bear’s Den (BD)
• East Asian Library
• Holmes Lounge
• Law School Café
• Olin Library
• Parkside Café at Schnuck Pavilion
• Simon Hall study rooms
• Tisch Commons in the DUC
• Whispers Café
Set up your study space in your room. Be sure to consider lighting and charging needs.
Learn how to find the menu and ingredients for on-campus dining.
Learn how to request a digital or physical book through WashU library.
Wednesday, August 21
Welcome to WashU
Who is my WUSA?
How can I contact my WUSA?
INTRODUCTIONS
Share the following with your group:
• Name
• Pronouns
• Where home is for you
• Academic school
• Something you are passionate about
GROUND RULES FOR SMALL GROUP
• Confidentiality.
We want to create an atmosphere for open, honest exchange. We ask that things said in this space stay in this space.
• Our primary commitment is to learn from each other. We will listen to each other and not simply talk at each other. We acknowledge differences amongst us in backgrounds, skills, interests, and values. We realize that it is these very differences that will increase our awareness and understanding through this process.
• We will not demean, devalue, or “put down” people. We will not discriminate against people based on their experiences, lack of experiences, or difference in interpretation of those experiences.
• We will trust that people are always doing the best they can. We will give each other the benefit of the doubt. We will assume we are all trying our hardest and that our intentions are good even when the impact is not.
• Challenge the idea and not the person. If we wish to challenge something that has been said, we will challenge the idea or the practice referred to, not the individual sharing this idea or practice.
• Speak your discomfort.
If something is bothering you, please share this with the group. Often our emotional reactions to this process offer the most valuable learning opportunities.
• Shift or pivot your role.
Be mindful of taking up much more space than others. On the same note, empower yourself to speak up when others are dominating the conversation.
• Don’t freeze people in time.
We are all a work in progress. We will not assume that one comment or one opinion made at one time captures the whole of a person’s character.
Adapted From: The Program on Intergroup Relations, University of Michigan With acknowledgement to Melanie Morrison of Allies for Change & Shayla Griffin, 2012.
REFLECTING ON MY VALUES
Below are a list of values. Circle ones that strongly resonate with you. If you have a personal value not on this list, write it down.
Values List
Abundance
Acceptance
Accountability
Achievement
Advancement
Adventure
Advocacy
Ambition
Appreciation
Attractiveness
Autonomy
Balance
Being the Best
Benevolence
Boldness
Brilliance
Calmness
Caring
Challenge
Charity
Cheerfullness
Cleverness
Community
Commitment
Compassion
Cooperation
Collaboration
Consistency
Contribution
Creativity
Credibility
Curiousity
Daring
Decisiveness
Dedication
Dependability
Diversity
Empathy
Encouragement
Enthusiasm
Ethics
Excellence
Expressiveness
Fairness
Family
Friendships
Flexibility
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Grace
Growth
Flexibility
Happiness
Honesty
Humility
Humor
Inclusiveness
Independence
Individuality
Innovation
Inspiration
Intelligence
Intuition
Joy
Kindness
Knowledge
Leadership
Learning
Love
Loyalty
Making a Difference
Mindfulness
Motivation
Optimism
Open-Mindedness
Originality
Passion
Peace
Perfection
Performance
Personal Development
Playfulness
Popularity
Power
Professionalism
Preparedness
Proactivity
Punctuality
Quality
Recognition
Safety
Security
Service
Spirituality
Stability
Relationships
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Responsibility
Responsiveness
Self-Control
Selflessness
Simplicity
Success
Teamwork
Thankfulness
Thoughtfulness
Understanding
Uniqueness
Usefulness
Versatility
Vision
Warmth
Wealth
Well-Being
Wisdom
Zeal
Looking at my circled values, are there any themes that I am seeing?
What are my core values?
What do I perceive as WashU’s Values?
Why did I choose these core values?
How do my core values influence my actions?
SMALL GROUP REFLECTION QUESTIONS
• How did you feel during this activity?
• Why did you choose those core values?
• How do or should our core values influence our actions?
I AM FROM...
An exercise for surfacing cultural identity
I AM FROM… (familiar lands, neighborhoods, places you grew up)
I AM FROM… ( ancestors, past and current family members)
I AM FROM… (foods, taste, sights)
I AM FROM… (familiar sayings and stories heard from family and friends while growing up)
I AM FROM… (favorite songs, tv shows, movies, dance moves when you were growing up)
I AM FROM… (historical moments that mean something to you)
I AM FROM… (challenges that shaped your identity)
I AM FROM… (accomplishments and wins that shaped your identity)
I AM FROM… (who you aspire to be)
I AM FROM… (defining statement(s) of you who are)
THURSDAY - FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 - 23
Prepare for your courses:
• Read through each class syllabus to determine what school supplies you will need (textbooks, lab manuals, notebooks, supplemental materials, etc).
• Set up your planner and/or calendar.
• Add your classes to your calendar or planner.
• Visit Canvas to determine information about your courses.
• Find your professor and TA office hours on your syllabi and add them to your calendar or planner.
Explore campus spaces
• Find an outdoor space you’d like to spend time at on-campus or in Forest Park.
• Find the Mail Room on the South 40. You will receive an email when there’s a package or letter to pick up.
• Explore transportation options available on the WashU mobile app and TripShot to track WashU shuttles.
• Make sure you know how to get to the Habif Health and Wellness Center on the South 40.
Reach out to someone in your WUSA small group for a meet-up.
Friday, August 23
EXPLORING ACADEMICS WITH MY ACADEMIC DIVISION
What are some academic goals you want to accomplish?
What are your academic areas of interest?
What questions do you have for your adviser?
Thursday-Friday, August 22-23
FINDING INVOLVEMENT
• What goals for growth do you have that can be achieved outside the classroom?
• What are some skills you hope to gain?
• What activities do you want to get involved in outside the classroom?
SOCIAL IDENTITY
Social identities reflect how we see ourselves and how others see us with respect to major social categories. Their meanings are not fixed but take shape in particular social contexts. They are sometimes obvious and clear, sometimes not obvious and unclear, often self-claimed and frequently ascribed by others. For example, gender and racial groupings are often ascribed as well as self-claimed. Government, schools, and employers often ask an individual to claim a racial identity group or gender, or they ascribe one based on visual perception. Other social indentities—such as sexual orientation, religion, class, or disability status—might be personally claimed but may or may not be announced or easily visually ascribed. Some identities are fluid and change over time.
How we see ourselves (and how others see us) can vary depending on particular contexts and who we’re with in a given situation. Even with such contingencies and contexts, we nonetheless can have a general sense about our identites. For the purpose of this exercise, please identify the memberships you claim or those that are ascribed to you in this general sense. Some examples of social identities include:
Below are social categories that have widespread salience and a few examples of ways people identify within them. It’s NOT a full list. Please use your own language to describe how you identify.
Gender Woman, Man, Transgender, Boi, Boy, Girl, Femme, Genderqueer, etc.
Sex
Race
Ethnicity
Sexual Orientation
Religion
Socioeconomic Class
Intersex, Female, Male
Asian/Pacific American, Native American, Arab American, Latina, Black, White, Bi/Multiracial, etc.
Latine, Irish, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Italian, Mohawk, Jewish, Guatemalan, Lebanese, European-American, etc.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Heterosexual, Queer, Pansexual, Asexual, etc.
Poor, Working Class, Lower-Middle Class, Upper-Middle Class, Owning Class, Ruling Class, Newly Independent, etc.
Age Child, Young Adult, Middle-Age Adult, Elderly
Ability People with Disabilities (cognitive, physical, emotional, etc.), Temporarily Able-bodied, Temporarily Disabled
National Origin and Citizenship
Tribal or Indigenous Affiliation
Body Size/Type
What else?
United States, Nigeria, Korea, Turkey, Argentina, etc.
Mohawk, Aboriginal, Navajo, Santal, etc.
Fat, Person of Size, Naturally Thin, etc.
What other social identities are important in your communities?
PERSONAL REFLECTION ACTIVITY
Answer the following questions about your awareness of and learning about the socialization of the below identities. Bonus points for answering these questions with your family or friends.
The national US conservation on social identities include the following 11 social identity categories based on the most common oppressions currently being addressed: colonialism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, nationalism, elitism, ableism, and Christian hegemony. While there are many more social identities that could be considered for research and discussion, the following identities are the most common and consistently addressed across the country.
Social Identity
Indigeneity
Race
Gender
Sexuality
Class
Age
Citizenship Status
Education Level
Physical/Mental
Ability
Religion Followed
Language Spoken
When did you become aware of this identity?
What were you taught about this identity?
Who helped you make sense of your thoughts and questions?
SOCIALIZATION SELF-ACTIVITY REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What came up for you as you were doing this activity?
2. How has your understanding or thoughts around these identities shifted/evolved/stayed the same?
3. What are the differences/similarities in how you came to learn about these identities from your listening partner(s)?
Religious or Spiritual Affiliation
IDENTITY WHEEL
Ethnicity
Race
Age
1. Identities you think about most often.
Socio-Economic
Physical, Emotional, Developmental (Dis)Ability
2. Identities you think about least often.
3. Your own identities you would like to learn more about.
4. Identities that have the strongest influence on how you perceive yourself.
5. Identities that have the greatest influence on how others perceive you.
First Language
National Origin
Sexual Orientation
IDENTITY WHEEL REFLECTION QUESTIONS
• Were there any questions that were easier or harder for you to answer? Why?
• As you were completing the wheel, was there anything that surprised you?
• How do you plan on exploring your own identities during your time here at WashU?
SELF-CARE CIRCLE
Self-Care Strategies:
Overcoming Stress:
• What self-care strategies have you used in the past?
• What worked for you?
• What didn’t work for you?
• From our circle activity, what would you be interested in trying this year?
Identify some academic resources you may utilize this year. Revisit the Get Your Bearings online orientation for a list of available academic resources.
Identify how you will practice well-being, such as exercise or relaxation! Check out Habif Health and Wellness or Recreation for some online and in-person options.
Identify or set up a space that is conducive to exercise or relaxation.
Make a list of things you need to bring with you daily to your classes. Remember to include all academic needs, chargers, snacks, etc.
Update your support systems! Find a time to update your parents, family members, and friends about your first week.
Do a mental walk through of your first day of class. Ask any last minute questions to your WUSA!
FIRST WEEK PRIORITIES
PRIORITIES
Locate the restrooms in the buildings where you are taking classes.
Identify study spots or locations to test out during your first week.
Find a group of peers in each of your classes to sit with and potentially study with.
Transfer the due dates and materials from your course syllabus to your planner or calendar.
Make a plan for what to do to introduce yourself and engage with your professor either in class or at their first office hours.
Explore the academic resource options available for you for each of your classes.
Identify your meal locations before, between, and after classes.
Familiarize yourself with the Canvas Page of all of your classes.
Buy your books and materials for your courses.
Locate important resources on campus including your advisor’s office, Habif Health and Wellness, the Recreation Center, etc.
YOUR RANKING GROUP RANKING
What are some strategies or organizational tools that HAVEN’T worked for you in the past? Try to identify why this might have been.
What are some of the strategies and organizational tools that HAVE worked well for you in the past?
What are a few strategies you will implement at WashU?
How will you hold yourself accountable to this plan?
LETTER TO SELF
Welcome to college! This week marks the beginning of a new chapter in your life. You have the choice to pick up this new chapter where the last one left off, or you can create an entirely new plot. Where will your story go?
Take some time to draft a letter to yourself that outlines your goals for your first semester at WashU.
Write down what you hope to accomplish in your classes, social life, and co-curricular activities. What will you do to maintain your health and well-being? How would you like to be able to describe your first semester? What are your perceptions of WashU right now? How do you think they will change?
We encourage you to put some thought and effort into this exercise. While it may seem a bit awkward right now, from past experience we have found that students who take the time to write their thoughts and goals today have a more meaningful reflection in January.
LETTER TO SELF
REFLECTION:
What is one thing you learned or reflected on during Fall Welcome that you will put into practice to support your success at Washu?
What questions do you still have?
YOUR NAME:
Write your name on the line above, then pass this page to members of your WUSA group. Share your appreciation for each of your group members by writing an affirming message on their pages.
OUR WASHINGTON
Share one sentence about what your experience has been here at WashU.
Share one sentence about what you hope your legacy will be here at WashU.
