SOAR acquaints new undergraduates, parents with campus life

Its acronym is SOAR — Student Orientation, Advising and Registration — and that’s exactly what the UW–Madison program aims to help incoming undergraduates do as they begin their new lives as colleges students.

This summer’s installment of SOAR began June 15 for transfer students and opens June 21 for freshmen. The 30-year old program represents a coordinated effort by the university’s Office of Admissions, Student Orientation Programs and academic advisors from every school and college on campus.

SOAR coordinator Peg Davey expects about 5,600 freshmen, 800 transfer students and close to 6,000 parents to take part in the program, designed to register students for fall classes and acquaint them and their parents with campus life.

Davey says SOAR provides practical tools and strategies to help students and parents manage the transition to college. “Students are encouraged to get involved, take responsibility for themselves, expand their interests, respect others, balance their schedules and have fun,” she says. “Parents not only learn about campus resources, but discuss how family dynamics change with the transition to college, and how they can support their students during this time.”

Davey adds that undergraduate students have been playing a more hands-on role in developing and overseeing the program day to day.

This summer, student coordinators Melissa Earnest and Abha Thakkar, who helped design the program, are managing its progress. Their duties include training 13 SOAR student leaders to be teachers of university life. In addition to facilitating discussion and answering questions, the student leaders serve as role models for success in and out of the classroom.

Davey says this personal involvement has made the SOAR program more engaging, effective and personalized.

SOAR 1998 will run through Aug. 12. About 400 students and parents take part in each SOAR session. Thirty-four freshman sessions run for a day and a half each, and there are nine day-long sessions for transfer students. For more information, contact Davey at (608) 262-6972.