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Especially coming to a big city like bostin and a big university like BU, you may feel
like you really don't know anyone. Well, we want you to know right from the beginning
there's people here that
are in the same boat
they want to get to know you
and you want to get to know them.
and that's where we begin. We begin with common ground.
-It really shaped my experiences as a BU student,
living in the city of boston. I'm a music major but i got to meet kids that are
in the school of engineering or in the college of arts and sciences and it made it a
little easier going into the whole orientation process. - what do you get when you do common ground?
The first thing you get is a snack pack.
You're going to get to ride the T (subway) so we have charlie cards you'll be able to use to
navigate the city. Everybody's using a GPS device similar to this right here
what we want to be is not high tech, but high touch,
and by that mean is that the focus isn't on the device but it's on
the people so you're gonna spend a lot of time interacting with other
incoming freshmen. There's a big reason why we think that's important.
It's tough to put a value on starting college with a group of people you already know.
The students are are racing around the city in small groups,
getting to know each other.
They're all riding the T,
they're all seeing
places in this city the ones that we're not really expecting to see when you
come to visit boston
as well as the places that people who lived here their whole lives may not even have noticed.
i've really considered it important for me to go out there and see the city
since I'll be spending the next four years of my life here.
We went to the Boston Public Garden which was awesome because we had a chance to hang out in that area
And normally as a student you don't get a chance to just go and relax.
The other thing that happens in all those locations and each place that you go
is that we're giving people challenges initiatives,
teambuilding activities, ways to get to know each other to, challenge each other
to talk about themselves and where they're from
in doing that to make some networks to make
connections to to start developing relationships with people
so that when you come to a place like BU, which is a big university,
you've got a network of friends already established. - I actually keep in contact with some of them to this day.
-I started talking to this one girl named Anna
and a couple other people.
and when we found out we were housed next to each other
it's really convenient because I already had a familiar face and a friendly person that I knew.
and she's stil my best friend .
I met my current roommate at common ground. This gave me a chance to
to learn where he was from, what he likes... - We met at common ground
and we decided to be roommates. -While they're going around they have facilitators with them.
They're mostly the freshman
orientation advisors who are out there with them.
They're all BU students.
they're able to tell you about BU, tell you about Boston, why you should
study in this place
or grab a cannoli in that place.
As a facilitator for common ground, I love sharing the inside scoop.
of the cool and interesting places around Boston that you definitely won't find at a normal tour.
My favorite part about common ground was meeting my student leader.
She took us around and showed us little bits and pieces of Boston I would have never seen before.
and it was really cool coming back to campus having those connections.
We wanna make sure that ata the end of those three hours, by the time you get back hours by the time you get back here to
to the George Sherman Union,
you've got a bunch of people you know
you know well
you might have a cell phone numbers, you might already be facebook friends
so as the weeks go by between when orientation ends and
the first semester begins and you're back here on campus
you've had conversations with people, you've gotten to know people.
This is your community and
we want you to know
boston's your town
and BU is your campus and we're glad to have used part of our community.