Every year seniors and incoming freshmen get excited for one day right before school starts — freshmen orientation.

Normally it is a full-day event filled with a pep rally, freshmen going to their classes, and a mass. However, this year contained many differences from previous years. For example the freshmen and senior classes were split into three groups so there were fewer people in the building and it was cut down to a two-hour event for each group. They cut out the pep rally and also the mass but the freshmen still got to go to their classes and also see some new classmates.

“I wish that we were not in a pandemic so that I would be able to have the true freshman experience,” said freshman Christian Swiezy.

Students hoped to do more, so they could see their whole class and have a true experience of Roncalli. The class didn’t get to see the spirit and the other aspects of the Roncalli family. 

“I liked our freshman orientation better than this year. We obviously weren’t in the middle of a global pandemic, so our entire class was able to be together and have a pep rally, but it was fun to be on the other side of things this year,” said senior Rachel Hahn.

Most of the senior class enjoyed this year’s orientation, but they would pick their freshmen orientation over this year’s. Even though they might’ve not enjoyed it as much, they still showed up and showed that they are the leaders of the school now. This was shown by helping freshmen get to their classes and also helping them open up their lockers. It was an experience that helped the seniors get into their newfound leadership.

“Mr. Banich did a fantastic job completely restructuring the event to make sure it was safe for all in attendance. To start, instead of one big orientation, we had three smaller ones to assure that we followed all crowd/safety guidelines set by the government,” said the Director of Admissions Miss. Ross.

Though it was not what some of the students wanted at least they had an orientation. It was the day that started off this new school year which is filled with questions and concerns from all.