Welcome Saturday Report
By Clementine Dernelley
On Saturday the 22nd of February, we had the pleasure of opening our doors for 136 new students. The College was bustling with many new faces ready to start their journey here at Hilda’s. Welcome Saturday is not just the start of a new chapter, it can be the start of a new life. So many opportunities arise so fast, so many memories to be made, adventures to be had, things to experience. I found this was something that the freshers could not wait for.
Asking around these new faces, I wanted to know what they were most excited for. Despite a brief sprinkling of going to parties and bars, most answers involved making new friends, experiencing new things, and getting the most out of this opportunity. This sentiment also went beyond its surface level. They knew that this wasn’t just an opportunity to make new friends, it was an opportunity for more.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting my people and getting a say in what community I’m part of and what sort of relationships I want to foster” shared one first year student.
This response of knowing that you are going to belong in the community we make is exactly what we want at Hilda’s, and what the staff and O-Week team had diligently put so much time, effort and care into.
When I asked what first impressions of Hilda’s were I received overwhelming praise of how welcoming and friendly everyone was. The front quad was alive with people making new friends and preparing for their new adventures in tertiary education. This included sinkies meeting; with many having already discovered their similarities and differences, identifying the ways that they can grow, learn and create memories together. I witnessed a very wholesome interaction between two fresher sinkies discovering that they both knew the musical instrument the other one had always wanted to play and therefore could teach each other!
This atmosphere has a lot to do with the highly commendable effort of the O-Week team, who put in great efforts to make sure Welcome Saturday – and the rest of O-Week – was a thriving success. They welcomed everyone at the door, along with our wonderful SRA’s and other staff, and helped them move in; making them know Hilda’s was their home.
My experience of talking to many freshers allowed me to gain knowledge of many different places and experiences, which is not something I had the pleasure of indulging in before coming to Hilda’s being from a small town. I got to meet people from far and wide, extending from the nearby suburbs of Melbourne to places such as India and England! The strides people took to come together and form a community despite differences was something that was so admirable, showing that they would truly fit into this community perfectly.
Whilst this was a big day for the freshers, it was a great day to reflect for those returning. Not just for the students present such as O-Week leaders, but also for our wonderful staff and other helpers. It is a day that is easily comparable to your own first day. An opportunity to reflect on how far you may have come, how you have changed and grown, and the lessons that may have been learnt – or are still learning.
Coming to college at university is diving in the deep end; you’re moving away from family and friends, starting a higher level of education that is incredibly different to high school, living in a city most haven’t lived before and starting a new phase of life. Starting all of this in one go is so daunting but so rewarding. It was such an exciting day, but was also one that was filled with understandable nerves and melancholy. For most, it was their first experience living on their own – leaving parents and caregivers as well as other loved ones is a hard thing to do but was handled incredibly well.
As my finishing thought, I would like to congratulate all Hildarians – in every capacity – of taking this leap of faith. Despite it being into a heavily supported net, it is still a scary act. One that we are so glad you took with us.