Orientation Weekend 2019
How else could you start your new year as an ebster than becoming a real ebster? The school was filled with new faces, who were all willing to give their puppy vows and greet their course mates to celebrate the start of a new school year, in the flash of light!!!
Orientation Weekend is an annual event for fresh students so they could get used to the new stuff and start their year with a bang. What’s most important, they could find new mates to go through thick and thin up until the end of the studies.
Our Orientation Weekend lasted for 3 days. The fresh students could give their vows to be an ebster. They confirmed it with leaving their fingerprint on the vows. They played a lot of different social games so it would be a little bit easier for them to go to their first lectures. They saw their friends, had fun at the O’Learys, competed at the pub crawl, and on the last day they had a brunch at the Suveterrass to finish off the whole weekend.
The main organizer of the event, Britta Arrak answers some questions:
Why should the new ebsters take part of Orientation Weekend?
This is the event that makes you a true ebster. You can finally understand what everyone is talking about when they say that the ebsters is a one big family. You’ll definitely make some friends. When you step into the school on the first day, there will be some familiar faces to be seen, with whom you’ve already spent time and had fun with. For example, in 2017 I met my desk mate, who has become my best friend, at the Orientation Weekend. Life is full of surprises and who didn’t take part – now you’ll know what you missed out on!
What could have gone better?
There were some problems with motivating the organising team and also time management.
Which part of the Orientation Weekend was spot on?
The O’Learys programme of the first night was a 100% spot on.
The Game Rooms of the second day was also a success, thanks to the system created by the last years’ main organizer Kaisa. There were some really fun and active activities.
In addition, this years’ pub crawl event was with a fixed fee so that the participants wouldn’t have to spend too much money on the competition.
Now, I can’t leave out the fact that the brunch on Suveterrass was extremely enjoyable and filled with really tasty food. It’s possible that it started a little bit too early for a Sunday, but the most active parties showed up anyways. We also got lucky with the weather, because unexpectedly for Estonian weather, it was really summery, warm and dry.
How was the feedback?
The feedback I’ve gotten has been rather positive. The participants liked the puppy oath and the pub crawl the most. Of course, I got some great tips about what could have been better and what to do differently next time.
How long does it take to organize such an event and what did you focus on the most?
For me, it took 2 months to organise the whole event, because I did it alongside my main job. I did focus on everything quite equally. I did my best to make it really fun and memorable for the new ebsters, so it would be easy for them to make a lot of new friends to spend their upcoming years at EBS with.
What was the event really like? Ask from the new ebsters themselves (participants: Tomi Meitus, Sandra Raag Bergman and Hanne-Lore Väin)
Why did you choose to study at EBS?
Tomi: I chose EBS because I’ve dreamt about owning and running a company my whole life. My father has always taught me that whatever I accomplish in life, I should do it with my own two hands and my mind, not waiting for someone to hand me everything on a silver platter.
Sandra: EBS was the only school that teaches Entrepreneurship and Business management but offers me a chance to learn Creative Entrepreneurship as well. I also have heard many great things about the atmosphere in school and after the interview I knew, this is the place I belong to.
Hanne-Lore: I chose EBS because I like to organise different projects and events, and I knew that EBS could offer me the much-needed knowledge about entrepreneurship and business management.
What was the reason to take part of Orientation Weekend?
Tomi: I chose to take part of the event because I realised that this is a great opportunity for me to make new contacts with my new course mates and I got to know what EBS events really are like.
Sandra: It seemed to be a perfect opportunity to meet my new course mates and the school itself.
Hanne-Lore: I decided to take part of Orientation Weekend because I wanted to meet new people and get to know the peers I’ll soon study together with.
How many new friends you made? Do you think that they brought people together?
Tomi: I really did find surprisingly many new contacts and friends. I got to talk with at least with a half of my course – more or less. Definitely, these planned activities worked as an icebreaker and they brought people together.
Sandra: I got to know many people from Estonia and abroad. Orientation Weekend itself was a great icebreaker and those activities gave us all a reason to meet new people.
Hanne-Lore: I made a couple of new friends and new acquaintances. Different games and the Sunday brunch gave us the opportunity to create new connections and learn to know each other better.
What did you like about the Orientation Weekend the most and what not?
Tomi: I personally liked the activities at O’Learys and on the second day as well – especially the Pub Crawl. I didn’t dislike anything really, everything was excellent.
Sandra: It’s hard to bring out something that I liked the most because the whole event was totally cool. The only moment I am kind of questioning is the moment we signed the oath with our „paw mark“ and we didn’t have anything to wipe this ?mixture? off with. Besides that, everything was awesome!
Hanne-Lore: I liked everything. It was really well thought-out. I liked the Pub Crawl and the Sunday Brunch the most. The Pub Crawl was really fun, and the Sunday Brunch gave us the opportunity to exchange our impressions from the past few days.
Would you recommend other new ebsters to take part of this event? Why?
Tomi: Definitely I’d recommend to take part in every event you could possibly go, especially in the beginning when you don’t know anything about the people you have to work with in the future, because it’s so much more pleasant and comfortable to go to lectures and cooperate with people you already know to some extent.
Sandra: Absolutely. Great relationships affect your personal school life and it’s good to start off with making new connections at the Orientation Weekend.
Hanne-Lore: I would definitely recommend taking part in that event because this kind of an event brings you out from your comfort-zone. And as they say – your life starts where your comfort-zone ends. Through these events you meet new interesting people and find someone to share your school experience with, throughout the years.
This year has begun marvellously to all of us because the number of participants exceeded everyones’ expectations, which lights up our faces and shows us that this is the way to go forward. Our events and get-togethers are what makes us the united grand family where everyone could feel nice and happy.
