“My work day pre-COVID is a mixture of meetings that focus on how to support our incoming students and our current first-year students,” Smith said. That includes organizing big fall events like EmBark, Pre-RendezBlue and RendezBlue, and Family Weekend. “In March, everything shifted and all of the initial planning we were doing stopped and I had to rethink how we were doing everything.”
That meant, among other things, moving her class on orientation leaders online. “We spent the rest of the semester continuing to prep and also spending time building our team because we weren't able to do that in person during the spring semester,” Smith said. “The orientation leaders working together as a team and being able to support and encourage each other was critical to our success this summer!”
Smith also had to figure out how to bring programs like EmBark Orientation online. EmBark would usually be a time for incoming students to gather at UNC Asheville, meet new friends and faculty members, explore the university and the city, and take part in fun activities together.
“Ultimately I had to focus on what our culture is at UNC Asheville and how we can make sure that our online EmBark format is true to who we are at UNC Asheville,” Smith said. “And for us, it's a focus on the individual relationships and ensuring our students know that they are cared for and will be supported holistically in their development.”
And then there was the technology to figure out; Zoom and an app called Raftr helped create the virtual community and information sessions. In the end, the numbers broke down like this:
· 5 EmBark sessions
· 12 orientation leaders
· 65 faculty members serving as advisors representing every department on campus
· 91 presentations from staff and faculty
· 143 orientation leader small group sessions
· 202 Zoom links
· 0 major technology catastrophes
The work continues with bringing other campus events for students and families online or restructuring them to be safe and socially distant throughout the semester.
“I want our campus community to know that we are all in this together,” Smith said. “Its going to take everyone working together, communicating together, and supporting each other to allow us to have a successful fall semester-and we can do it! We're off to a great start!”
Fun Fact: Smith completed her first half marathon in March during the beginning of the state Stay at Home orders. Even though the Biltmore Half Marathon was canceled, she still ran all 13.1 miles!