Adnaan Sheriff
Major: Psychology & Health and Wellness
Class Year: Senior
Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Favorite Place on Campus: SBVAC (Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corp.) headquarters
Dream Job: Hockey Player

An Introduction to the Orientation Leaders

So what is an Orientation Leader (or “OL” as we like to call ourselves)? I personally like to think of an OL as a student who exhibits pride and involvement in the Stony Brook community. However, each one of us exhibits unique personality traits that make us each a crucial part of a larger team that makes the orientation experience what it is. We are all students who go to class and study like an average student would do. However, we love Stony Brook and we hope to instill that pride in the students and parents that we encounter.

So you’re probably asking by this point, “what exactly do OLs do?” One myth that I have to debunk about OLs right off the bat is that we don’t just give tours. For some reason a lot of people believe that giving tours is a major component of our job. In fact, giving tours makes up a small part of our duties. We spend most of our work days interacting with and educating students about various aspects about Stony Brook. For freshmen, most of our days are spent engaging students in various activities that their Undergraduate Colleges have and helping them formulate a schedule and register for their classes. For transfer students, we spend our days assisting advisors and other staff along with aiding incoming students in registering their classes. Our goal for every student at their orientation is to make them feel welcome at our wonderful school and ultimately help them get a schedule that fits their needs. We want every student to have some sort of connection to our school before their first day of classes and to leave orientation with knowledge that will help them be successful at Stony Brook.

Overall, being an OL means being a representative for Stony Brook. We are more often than not the first Stony Brook students that new incoming students see at our campus and our goal is to show our pride for our school and to make our new students feel welcome.