Getting Started Weekend at Cedarville is one of the most memorable weekends of the year for me. Getting Started was my first-ever experience with Cedarville, and it influenced my decision to attend Cedarville as a student. After taking part in the weekend for the last four years, I’m excited to share my experience of Getting Started Weekend as a prospective student, a sibling of a Yellow Jacket, and finally as a Sting leader (student volunteer).
The first time I visited Cedarville happened to be during Getting Started Weekend. I arrived on campus expecting to visit on a normal Friday when classes were in session, but as my dad, my brother and I pulled into campus, it was immediately clear that we had come on a special day. Yellow-shirted students lined the curb, waving pool noodles and welcome signs. They hollered “Welcome home!” My dad picked up the memo and rolled down the windows. The drive into campus is ingrained in my memory as our first encounter with the Cedarville student body and their enthusiastic greetings.
The following year, my family drove down to Cedarville to move my brother onto campus as a transfer student. I got to relive the high-energy welcome from the Sting leaders, vigorously waving pool noodles and signs that they had already been holding for hours. We were surrounded by student volunteers trekking into and out of the dorm, incoming students arranging their rooms, and parents meeting each other and chatting.
After some students directed our vehicle to my brother’s dorm, more students unloaded the entire trunk before I even got out of the car. The time my brother spent unpacking seemed as brief as the time it took for the Sting leaders to unload our trunk. When we said goodbye to my brother the next day, I didn’t want to leave. It felt like we were leaving a huge family reunion.
I was sad to leave my brother, but after getting to experience Getting Started Weekend as his sibling, I was happy he got to stay on campus — I just wanted to stay, too.
Thankfully, through the kindness and sovereign work of God, I got to join the campus community as a student a week later. As I moved into my room, all the freshman girls in my Printy unit lined the unit hallway, greeting me and helping me move in. Even though Getting Started Weekend was over, I was received by the students the same way they had received my family and my brother the first weekend. The “welcome home” message of Getting Started Weekend does not end after that first weekend of the semester — it sets the tone for the rest of the year.
At Getting Started Weekend 2023, I got to join hundreds of fellow students in greeting the new class of students. Arriving on campus three days before the incoming students, other returning student volunteers and I attended training sessions morning and afternoon. Fresh from summer break, we got to fill our minds with Scripture and prayer for our efforts to welcome the incoming students. The weekend was beginning to take on a new purpose for me. Friday and Saturday morning at 7 a.m., we lathered on our first layer of sunscreen for the day and headed to our stations. As Sting leaders, we would either help students move into their dorms or cheer them on as they drove onto campus with their families.
Friday afternoon, during my last move-in shift, the temperature was over 90 degrees and cars were becoming scarcer. My friend and I found a shady spot in the parking lot and laid on the asphalt. While I doubt I will ever find myself lying face-down on the asphalt again, I remember that afternoon with irreplaceable pleasure.
Friday night, we got to meet our Sting group — seven to ten students we had previously only known from a group chat — at the spot where our group number and the students’ names were chalked on the pavement. We took time to get to know the freshmen in our group more personally amid the games and chatting of Jacket Fest.
On Saturday, after a day of introductory sessions for the freshman students, the freshmen ended the day by circling the lake together at the Jacket Jaunt as a way of officially welcoming them into the Cedarville family. They were cheered on by the Sting leaders, faculty, family, and returning students.
Cedarville invests a lot of time in planning and carrying out Getting Started Weekend. Over my years of experiencing Getting Started Weekends, I have realized why the staff plan the weekend so intensively, why returning students come back early and work long days, and why families leave the weekend encouraged: The weekend is a way to show new students and families God’s love for us.
In Matthew 10:7, Jesus tells the disciples to “proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” One way that we can proclaim the Kingdom of heaven at Cedarville is by demonstrating genuine care for families and new students upon their first arrival on campus. This is what keeps Sting leaders cheering in the heat or rain, the staff attentively planning and directing the weekend, and families and students becoming part of the Cedarville family.
Major and Year of Graduation: English, class of 2026.
Favorite Study Spot: My room!!!
Favorite Music Artist: Bach.
Favorite Quote: “It doesn’t hurt to be kind” (The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1955).
What do You Like to do in Your Free Time? I like to take walks with friends or try a new craft. I recently rebound my Bible!
Favorite Bible Verse: 2 Peter 3:13.
Tags: #experience, #freshman, #gettingstarted, #gettingstartedweekend, #helpful, #personal, #studentlife, #students, #welcomehome
Posted in: CU Parents, Experience, Getting Started, Student Life