Busy week of events and activities helps kick-off new year at Ohio State

The start of the academic year at The Ohio State University is just getting underway. But new Buckeyes have already had an eventful weekend on campus.

Ohio State’s Welcome Week events began in earnest on Friday night with the Global Buckeye Celebration for more than 2,000 international students, continued with the organized chaos of the residence hall move-in on Saturday and peaked with the President’s Convocation and the First-Year Student Columbus Welcome Event and Buck-i-Frenzy.

“It’s one of my favorite days of the year,” President Michael V. Drake said as he helped students move in this weekend. “It’s a chance to meet both the students who are coming but also their parents. The excitement that we see in the students and the pride that we see in the parents, it’s really tremendous.”

Mikayla Bisson, a first-year public affairs major, came to Ohio State by way of Los Angeles. She said she has been surprised by all of the events for Welcome Week.

“It’s so fun. A lot of people have told me that once students started going on to campus that it’s a lot different,” she said. “But I didn’t realize just how many people there are here. The Student Involvement Fair yesterday, Buck-i-Frenzy today, there’s just been a lot going on and it’s been a great time.”

The Student Involvement Fair featured more than 700 student organizations, campus departments, area businesses, and community agencies lined up near the heart campus to encourage student involvement. Bisson said she was interested in the variety of community service clubs available.

“It’s something that I was really involved with in high school and I want to continue. And I also want to find new things that I’ve never done before,” she said.

Her roommate, Seanna Austin, a first-year accounting major from Binghamton, NY, echoed that sentiment.

“I came here planning to try new things but there is so much to do,” she said.

During the President’s Convocation, Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron told students that it’s not just clubs, activities and athletics that offer a chance to explore new ideas.

“We offer more than 12,000 courses, you will find something that interests you,” he said.

During his address at the President’s Convocation, Drake encouraged the class of 2022 to try new things but to be true to themselves. He also reminded them that they were joining an organization that would connect them for the rest of their lives.

“As you look around, you will see people who will become your best friends in life,” he said. “Buckeye Nation is singular in its size, its impact and its connectivity.”

Drake helped lead the more than 7,700 new students as they locked arms to sing Carmen Ohio for the first time as a class. And he helped play students out of the Schottenstein Center when he joined the Shadowbox Live band to get the new school year started in a rocking fashion.