The 2022 Freshmen Orientation (OT) was held online from Feb. 14 to 17, followed by a matriculation ceremony on Feb. 18, which was also held online. It was held in a similar fashion to last year’s orientation, with the incoming freshmen attending through Zoom meetings and YouTube live streams. While the Freshmen OT was originally intended to be an offline event, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant caused the school’s Infectious Disease Control to declare a six-week Omicron Prevention Period from Jan. 27 to March 11, forcing all events to take place online.
On the first day of the OT, the freshmen were introduced to the orientation programs and were given time to introduce themselves amongst their classes. This was followed by a welcoming message by President Moo Hwan Kim and lectures on the education system in the Mueunjae School of Undergraduate Studies and POSTECH’s IT infrastructure. Next, a period for school club introductions allowed freshmen to listen to representatives from school clubs they wished to join. After dinner time, an ice-breaking program themed around designing the POSTECH campus when it was founded in 1986 encouraged discussion amongst the freshmen and helped the classmates to get to know each other.
The second day began with an opening message from the Vice President of the Admissions and Student Affairs team and a special lecture from an alumnus professor on the history and spirit of POSTECH. Next was a mission tour around the school, a program where freshmen could virtually visit the buildings on campus and conduct missions. The missions provided an additional ice-breaking experience, and the videos showing the routes between the buildings gave the freshmen an opportunity to become familiar with the topology of the campus and virtually experience the college.
The last two days of the orientation mostly consisted of various mandatory freshmen education sessions and presentations such as an introduction to the academic curriculum at POSTECH and how to use school infrastructure like the Tae-Joon Park Library and the POSTECH Counseling Center. The orientation came to an end with the “Visible Radio & TO Awards” program, where freshmen could listen to stories sent by fellow students and awards were given to various people on a wide variety of criteria.
Four days of informative and interactive activities made sure the freshmen could get to know each other and start their new life at POSTECH on an equal grounding.