By Carrie McLendon

Just as every incoming Troy University student does, I recently spent two days at IMPACT: New Student Orientation on Troy campus. I participated in Session three on June 16-17.

Throughout orientation, each student is able to get to know the campus and its leaders, as well as fellow incoming students through various activities.

IMPACT was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of information not only for the students, but for our parents as well. Thankfully, through all of this information, Troy helps give their incoming students the smoothest transition possible into our college life.

For me, many of these things were not new as I’ve spent three years dually enrolled at Troy, however it was extremely helpful to get a refresh, as I am no longer being assisted by my previous facilitators. 

Even though I knew a lot of the information I was given, IMPACT was still a great experience when it came to my Trojan Spirit. As a dual enrollment student, I was not able to participate in many campus groups and events, so it was nice to feel fully involved with the school that I’ve loved my whole life.

On day one, we checked into our dorms, took our student ID photos and dove into a day full of information. We were also separated into our color teams where we got to know each other and our leaders on a smaller scale.

We were then given the chance to talk to various campus organizations at a browse session before heading off to tour our respective departments.

On Monday afternoon, we got ready for T-TIME where we’d learn all about the fun parts of being a Trojan with our leaders, head basketball coach Scott Cross and of course, everyone’s favorite mascot, T-Roy. This is where the real fun and team competition began as this is where the spirit stick was presented.

My team, the Orange Outlaws, proved to have the most Trojan Spirit and came out on top as we were selected by Coach Cross as the winners of the extremely sought after spirit stick.

After T-TIME we returned to our dorms to prepare for an evening of even more fun competition. Now this is where things got serious, as everyone put on their team colors and their game face and headed off to Camp Butter and Egg where we’d compete to be the winners of this session’s camp games.

At Butter and Egg we did various activities such as ziplining and kickball before settling in for our camp games. My favorite part of these activities was watching T-Roy make his way through the zipline course.

Unfortunately when it came to camp games, the Outlaws just couldn’t quite pull through, but it didn’t really matter because we had a lot of fun anyway.

Upon returning from the camp games, we wrapped up the day with a social hour at the campus recreation center where we were able to talk to current students from various organizations and make connections that will help us with our transition into college.

On day two, we checked out of our dorms, spent our last hour with our color teams and set off for academic advising where we’d receive our first college schedules.

To end the session, we were given a coupon to get a free meal in Downtown Troy.

My group leaders, Troy students Laney Kelley and Anthony Boyer made the experience by far the best that it could’ve been and I could not be more grateful for them as well as everyone else involved.
As someone who has always loved Troy, this experience was a great way to truly prepare me for my next four years at Troy. I’m so grateful and I can’t wait to start in the fall.

Congratulations to all of my fellow admitted students and go Trojans!