Welcoming student employees back with a DEI-focused orientation
At the start of the semester Ally Bartelme, Client Services Specialist, coordinated the orientation of the Office of the Registrar student employee team. This orientation was held for all student employees, but especially for students returning to campus after the summer off and our newly hired students.
This year the RO kicked off its orientation with the First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour. Organizing this tour was part of an effort to integrate DEI curriculum into the RO student employee program, as students have previously expressed interest in incorporating more structured DEI opportunities into the student program. The tour started at 8 a.m. and students were joined by a few professional team members. Despite the early start, students were highly engaged and asked great questions to Aaron Bird Bear, who led the tour. Students commented afterward that they found great value in the tour and enjoyed learning more about the history of UW–Madison.
“It was really refreshing to get a raw, truthful lesson on our campus’ history. I appreciated Aaron Bird Bear’s candidness and ability to apply and interact with the content – it made it much more impactful for me, personally. I think it was a great introduction to DEI learning in our workplace, and I am excited to see how we develop our relationship with this work as an office,” said Mahika Mohan.
After the tour everyone walked from De Jope back to East Campus Mall to finish the orientation in 11301. The second portion of the orientation included updates and reminders for the upcoming semester, as well as an opportunity to engage with our new student employees and hear from student services leadership.
The students always look forward to orientation as a way to reconnect after the summer and meet our new student employees. With the success of including DEI learning at this orientation, going forward Ally plans to incorporate similar opportunities into future orientation sessions.