Back to School at COFC: A Guide for Incoming Students

On this episode we're revisiting a popular and timely episode from 2022 with three former College of Charleston students, Jaylen Newell, Bella Pack, and Lauren Pinto about successfully managing the first few weeks and months of college.

Their advice is timeless and will benefit new students who are starting classes, finding their way around campus and making new friends. From finding parking and making friends to avoiding dorm kitchen disasters (yes, water does go in microwave mac and cheese), the trio offers heartfelt insights drawn from their own college journeys. They discuss the importance of getting involved in clubs, exploring Charleston’s vibrant culture and embracing academic resources like the Center for Student Learning.
The episode also touches on deeper themes like homesickness, mental health, and the value of taking risks and staying open to change, whether it's switching majors or discovering unexpected passions. 

With humor, honesty, and encouragement, Jaylen, Bella, and Lauren remind new students that college is not just about academics, but about growth, connection and finding your place.

Resources from this episode:

• Clubs and organizations
• Center for Excellence in Peer Education
• Office of Student Wellness
• Department of Residence Life

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to speaking of College of Charleston. I'm your host, Amy Stockwell, and today we're revisiting a popular and timely episode from 2022 called Tips for Incoming College students. In this episode, we talk to three College of Charleston students, Jaylen Newell, Bella Pack, and Lauren Pinto. Who are now all alumni about the first few weeks and months of college.

They offer practical tips on where to find parking, how to make friends, and how to not burn mac and cheese in the dorm microwave. Their advice is timeless and will benefit new students who are starting classes, finding their way around campus and making new friends. Thank you guys for coming today. I really appreciate it.

Um, we are going to [00:01:00] talk about, we're gonna offer some advice and tips for incoming students. So let's, I'm gonna go around and have each of you introduce yourself and, um. Talk about your major and, uh, where you're from and what year you are. Sure. Awesome. Okay, so my name is Lauren. I'm a rising senior here at the college.

I'm a double major in finance and mathematics with a concentration in actuarial studies. Um, I'm originally from White Plains, New York. I don't know if I said that already, but I'm just gonna repeat it. Um, and I am a. CSL Tutor, which is the Center for Student Learning, which is a major resource here on campus for tutoring services.

And I am also a supplemental instructor, which means that I go to a specific class and sit in and get to teach them throughout the whole semester. Ah, so amazing. Hello everyone. My name's Bella Pack. I'm a rising junior here at the college this year. I'm from Merles Inlet, South Carolina, so not too far away from Charleston.

I'm actually a philosophy major. I'm on the pre-law track with A-P-P-L-W [00:02:00] concentration, which is politics, philosophy, and law. And a Spanish minor and then some things that I'm involved in on campus. Um, I'm a second year RA at Kelly House, as well as a peer educator, um, for the first year experience department, first year orientation intern, as well as a VP for CFC Red Cross Club.

Yay. So, hey Cougars. My name is Jaylen Newell. I'm a rising sophomore at the College of Charleston with a double major in biology and its national studies with a minor in neuroscience on the pre-med track. I'm from Goose Creek, South Carolina, so I'm not that far away from Charleston. And you can find me involved on campus in our black student union and our um, and are student alumni associates.

And I am also a 1967 legacy scholar. Okay, thanks everybody. So my first question today is, um, what is, you guys have been doing orientation all summer for new students. What's the most common [00:03:00] question that you get asked? I think I would say one of the most common questions we get asked is. Can I have a car on campus?

And why does it have to be 60 credit hours, um, to allow you to get that parking permit? I would definitely say to those who are looking to bring their cars their first year, that you're probably not gonna use it as much as you think you are. And if you do, you will find that one friend that does actually bring their car down and they will take you anywhere you need.

So it's really not a. Scary thing to have, but if you do bring your car on campus and you are looking for parking places, the Charleston, uh, county page has some really good parking permits that you guys can find, or you guys can look on Facebook pages to find some other rentals that are being sold. Yeah, that's definitely a great one.

Um, I would say the most question I get asked is, how do I make friends? Um, that's probably a big scary thing for a lot of college students coming in. You know, they're leaving home, they're leaving their, their little nest area, [00:04:00] so they're a little nervous, but I always reassure 'em that, you know, I personally didn't meet my best friends till sophomore year, so you have plenty of time to grow, find yourself, see who you are.

Um, always get involved on campus. We do love to shout out Cougar Connect. Um, we have over 200 clubs and organizations on campus as well as our weeks of welcome to go to. And for me, a common question that I usually get at orientation is, do I have to get through all of my gen eds my first semester? And I just wanna reassure you guys that no, that is not the case because your gen eds are met to last you through all four years.

So don't worry about trying to get like all your spanishes or your maths all done your first semester because you still have seven more semesters to go. That's a great tip. Bella, you were talking about clubs. Mm-hmm. What are, what club, what clubs are you involved in? You said? So I'm involved in, um, the CFC, red Cross Club as well as True Friends Club.

Right. Tell us about that a little bit. So the CFC, red Cross Club, of course, everybody's like, oh my gosh, is it donating blood? No, it's [00:05:00] actually more than that, I promise. I mean, you can donate blood if you want to, you know, save a life, whatever. That's not your type. That's fine. So, um, we actually do volunteer hours quite often, so we do stuff around our campus as well as we, um, host events like tie ding or stress ball making.

Um, recently in 2021, like for me personally, I teach international humanitarian law for the American Red Cross. So I'll host events on campus with that. You can get involved that way. Wow, that's very cool. Are you guys in clubs? Either of you? Um, I know I am our Black Student Union and our student alumni associates.

So yeah, it's like I joined my freshman year just to like get onto campus, but like through actually like participating and actually getting some leadership roles, like I feel like I found my place on campus and I found like the activities that I like to do and the people that I like to do the activities with.

So it's just like, I wanna assure that like. There's a club here for everyone. 'cause we have over 200 plus clubs. We have a cheese club for like our sake. So I mean, there's a [00:06:00] lot for you guys to choose from. If you're lacto is intolerant still, go for it too. Still go for it as well. And please put water in your mac and cheese.

I highly, highly, highly put that out there to put water in your mac and cheese. Does that have something to do with the burning? Oh yes. Oh yes, of course. Yes. It's always the mac and cheese, the popcorn cheese. That's great. Um, what else, what are some other questions that they ask? How about, do they ask you about favorite classes or is that, uh, a common question that you get?

I would say, so I've gotten that, um, the past couple of sessions of orientation and I always kind of go for the humanities there. Um, especially for me personally. Like I came in on the pre-med track. I literally completely flipped to pre-law, as you can see. You know, I was so destined to be the next Dr.

Pimple Popper wanted to do that the rest of my life. And then I took my first biology class and I was like, LOL, this is actually horrible. Um, I can't do math either. So I was like, let's try to figure out something else. And then I took my first philosophy class, [00:07:00] um, philosophy two 10, which is philosophy, law, the arts.

And I started writing my first papers, learning about it, and I was like, wow. I was like, I absolutely adore this. So CNI was the exact opposite. I came in and being like, I know I'm good at math, but like I hate stats. I'm never taking stats here. I'm gonna suck at it. And I came in and aced it and now that's the track I'm on and I'm just kind of riding with it.

So I. I know that we all think we know what we wanna come into college as, or we have some sort of idea, but take those random classes, take something interesting, or just take something that you're like, I don't know if I'm gonna be into this or not. Because you might get into it and you'll be like, wow, this was really cool.

I wanna change my major. Like I wanna do this instead of what I thought I wanted to do. So college is really where you get to experiment on what you wanna do after college and. It's okay to switch it up a couple times. You don't have to know exactly what you wanna do at 18. Trust me, I don't know what I wanna do at 21.

So it's, you get to look, [00:08:00] grow and learn here at CFC. So try those classes, have those experiences because it's different for everybody. But you might find something that you never thought you would be into. And just to emphasize that fact about choosing interesting courses. I know I came as a biology major that set on like everything, medical wise, things like that.

But I actually picked up my second major international studies from taking doctor days model African UN class. And I mind you, I've never taken like a Model U in class. Like I had no experience going in, but as I was going, like throughout the course, throughout the semester, I started to love it and I was like.

I feel like I can get something outta this course and apply it to like what I wanna do in the future, which is based at immunology. So just explore classes because you never know what might seem interesting to you and you never know like what that can bring to you in the future. So tell me what, tell me about a peer educator.

What is that? Yeah, [00:09:00] so a peer educator, um, it's just a semi like professional role. So you're basically a peer with each other. Um, so you have like a classroom about maybe 20 plus students. Um, first year students of course, and it's almost like a college 1 0 1 thing. Like you're giving them, not the basics, but honestly kind of like, not how to survive either, but it's like, I'm your buddy if you need it.

Like, let's talk about life. Let's talk about the things that you can do here. Um, let's talk about the resources if you need it, et cetera. Um, I have a lot of fun. Always love to play games with my students, or I always like to make it as if like, if they ever need me, like, I'm like, yeah, I'm an ra. Like if you're really sick one night and like you can't make it back to your dorm, I'm like, just let me know.

Like I'll come grab you. Like, don't worry. So it's almost like having little besties at that point. Nice. Did we talk about, um, how to meet people, how to meet the best way to meet, make friends? Mm. Well share, share your knowledge. Um, well, I had a very different experience than I think a lot of people did. I had a Snapchat group [00:10:00] chat that turned into me meeting my best friends of all time, two of which I currently live with.

And I've known them since my senior year of high school and we are still best friends. I mean, I got a tattoo with one of the girls that I met, like we are best friends to the point where I'm with her 24 7, and that's all because of coming to CFC. It really made my experience here. I was one of those kids that came in that.

Didn't know if they wanted to stay here, thought about transferring, was really like iffy about it. Came in, met my friends, and knew immediately that I wanted to stay here just from the experiences. But I also would say that like getting out into the dorms and seeing people there is a really good way to meet people as well, because you do end up making friends with a bunch of people on your floor.

I still see people all the time and I'm like, oh my gosh, hey, like you lived on right next door to me freshman year. Like, how are you? How's it going? And then. We'll get to chatting and then become friends and end up hanging out with each other. And it's really just [00:11:00] about putting yourself out there and really making those connections.

You can make friends here pretty much anywhere in the dining halls in res life. Like in the street? Yeah, on the street. Any sense of of life. Here at CFC you'll find some, some sort of friend in some way. Yeah, absolutely. And like for me, my year was also different. So I came in during the COVID year, so I was strictly online, kind of not locked down in the dorm, but basically because we didn't have any classes in person, we had hybrid, but it'd be once a week.

So that was kind of a bummer. But, um, other than that, like I just reached out to people on Zoom. I was like, Hey, besties. I'm like, you wanna be friends? And if they didn't respond, I was like, LOL, that's okay. But, um, you, you just kind of gotta be out there. And if people don't respond to you, that's okay. That just means you're so cool that.

They're just like, oh my gosh, I can't be friends with a cool person. Like, oh my gosh. So. And I had a very different year as well. So of course, um, I came into the college last year and that was like kind of around the time where we were kind of reverting back to normalcy. [00:12:00] Um, and I would say that I did have the privilege of attending Spectra and that really opened me up because I was able to meet other students of color and it was just a great experience.

But for coming into the, coming in your first year, I would say just talk to. Pretty much anybody because anybody at the College of Charleston, like they wanna make friends, especially freshmen, just because they don't really know anyone yet. And I know in my experience, my social battery was like through the roofs.

Like I had no idea how I did it, but I literally like went to like. Every person that was living in my dorm, college lodge, their door. I knocked on their door and I met every single person in my dorm Until this day, like every time I see like one of them on the streets, we always like catch up. So I would just say, just like talk to everyone because everyone is there to make a friend and like yo know that the people that really don't wanna be talked to, but like in most cases they're, they just want to have somebody to talk [00:13:00] to.

Those are great tips. How about, um. How about what? Like what do you do in your free time? Where's do you, do you go to the beach? Do you, um. Go out to eat with, do what? What do you do in your free time? Yeah, so I would say the, do you have any free time? Free time? I, I don't really have that much free time.

I'm a I'm a go go, go person. But I will say when I do have free time, I try to make it to the beach. Especially someone like me who grew up an hour and a half from any beach. Anywhere near me. It's nice to be 15, 20 minutes from the beach and just hop on the highway and go. Um, but I will say that King Street has kind of a place in my heart always.

It's. There's always new shops going in. There's always new things happening on King Street. Second Sunday is a really good event to go to and get to know a little, a couple people, and they have doggies walking around all the [00:14:00] time and they're so cute and I just wanna hang out with them the whole time.

But. They're always walking away from me, but I mean like really go to those things. Go to second Sunday, go to the the market and Saturdays in Marion Square. Those are so fun. They have smoothie bars and really cool artists that go and show their art and it's a really good way to sm support small businesses, which is awesome and a really good way to just kind of walk around and see that they're everything there is to offer here in Charleston.

Absolutely, definitely when I get free time, I love to snag my friends. We like to go to the beach, but other than that, like if I'm ever by myself, I love to just take a walk, love walking to the battery every other day when I have the energy of course. But, um, my favorite thing to do is kind of take pictures, little snapshots, be a little photographer, listen to music, act like you're the main character for a minute and just be like, wow, I'm in such a beautiful city.

But, um, and I also love to read college, um, has made me read a lot more than I normally do and I love to just pick up a book now and be like, oh yeah, this is what I'm gonna read for the weekend. [00:15:00] Um, with free time. I would say that it is good to explore Charleston because I want to let you guys know, like we do not live in the middle of the mountains.

We live in the cities, so like, it's always great to explore because I know my first year, even though I'm from Goose Creek and Goose Creek is not really far away from Charleston, like I was never really downtown as much, so I really didn't know like. My surroundings as well as I thought I would. And then just going around and seeing like all the historic buildings, the historic graveyards, the monuments.

It was just an amazing experience to have and it's all, it's extremely amazing when you're doing it with your friends as well. And I just wanna let you guys know that. Free time does come. It is just you have to learn and master time management. That is one thing that I wanna tell you guys is that time management is key in college.

So, yeah, that's a great point. And I was just thinking about, um, what about students who are struggling when they first come in and either with [00:16:00] homesickness or with anxiety. And what kind of services do we have at the college to help kids like that? Well, I have a really unique perspective on all of that stuff.

So I, um, graduated high school and moved down to Charleston two months afterwards, and my whole family moved down here as well. So I had a whole different form of homesickness than a lot of my other friends did. I wasn't going back to my hometown for Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything like that, so it was really weird for me.

To be so far away from my friends. But you know, you make different friends in college. I will say that your high school friends, you're gonna be friends with most of them or some of them. But your high, your college friends are the ones you're making for life. Like those are the friends that you're gonna meet and you're gonna be like, okay, I see myself being friends with these people for the rest of my life because.

There you're on a different path than a lot of people you went to high school with, or you're just doing [00:17:00] different things in life. Or like someone like me who just didn't go back home and everyone else was together. I just had to find a new path that I wasn't used to. It was a lot of change for me all at once, and I had a lot of homesickness.

And I mean, call your friends. They wanna talk to you too. They're probably experiencing the same thing from miles away, and they're probably like, I miss them. I wanna talk to them, or, I'm too busy and I can't call. Just call them up. They'll love talking to you. So I definitely think that homesickness is a hard tackle to face, but.

It's very manageable and your friends here will probably be going through the same thing, so just reach out. I've had plenty of talks with people about some real hard stuff here, and I think it's brought us closer more than anything, and we all learned that we're going through the same sort of things too.

Absolutely. That's a great point. And like, even though, you know, homesickness, it's, it's a really bummy thing to go through and it's even anything just [00:18:00] in general. But that is the beauty of college and that's the growth of yourself. It's like you're kind of shedding your old skin going into this new form.

Um, I always like to say anyway, but that's also when you have your resident, so you have your RAs. You have be peer educators, you have even professors. Like you're gonna have some professors that are so down to earth. You're like, yeah, that's my, you'll be like, yeah, that's like my grandpa. Like, basically.

But um, other than that, like you will find people that are going through these same exact things and you can just relate to them on a whole nother level. So yeah. Going off of that, I just wanna let you guys know that. Everyone at the College of Charleston, like all faculty, all offices, like they're there for you.

So they will do anything under power to help you. So like during exams weeks, like if you're ever feeling stressed or if you're having like anxiety, like I know many departments will host like stress reliever, um, things to help students relieve their stress. I know at MSP, um, they do motivational Mondays to motivate you throughout the day.

And I [00:19:00] know we also have our students support. Wait a sec, what's Ms. PMSP, the multicultural center. Okay. So we have that at MSP. Um, and then we also have our students for support. So it's a student led organization and they do things like dog therapy and things like that just to help students, you know, get some that stress off them because we know like even though it is college and even though college can be fun and things like that, like stress is a thing that does come with college.

So it's just great that we have all of these, um. Organizations and offices here to help us release some of that stress. Absolutely. And then also, um, the counseling center, they're wonderful. We absolutely adore them. You can always make appointments online. And then we also have something that we like to point out called T, which is, um, therapy Assistance online.

So you can kind of go through modules on how to deal with home sickness is actually one on there. Um, and just even loneliness or overcoming, you know, things like depression, anxiety, how to meditate, even if that's your style. That's great. There really are a lot of services out there. So I'm running [00:20:00] out of questions.

What, what have I not asked you guys? Like if you were looking back at your freshman year self, is there anything you would've done differently? What? What would you tell that freshman year self now? I got a good one. So as a, as a tutor of the Center for Student Learning, I highly, highly recommend. Please go for help.

If you're struggling in a class, I know that I am one of those students that's like, no, I'm gonna do it on my own. I'm gonna figure it out. I'm gonna stress through it and I'll get through it. All that sort of stuff. Yeah, but we're here to help. We've taken the class, we've aced the class, we've done it. We know how it works.

We know how the professors think and all this sort of things. So please come to us. Please ask for help. Even if you're like, I need help in this subject, and, and I'm there. Like, I don't know that subject that well. I'm gonna find some way to help you in some form or not. And the CSL also has this thing called academic coaching where they take.

Um, the [00:21:00] workers in the CSL will take students either twice a week, once a month, that sort of situation, and sit down with you and focus on those time management skills and those organization skills in classes because not all of us learn those in high school, and we're coming in in a new, fresh way. So we need to build those skills up, and that's a really good way to do it.

And they're all so nice in there and they want to help you as much as possible. That's what they're there for. So please, please take advantage of it. That's wonderful. I would definitely tell myself to take more risks. Um, especially as you grow older, you know, you kind of realize, especially when you get in college, life is really short and these four years fly by, like, I feel like I blinked, I'm a junior.

And I'm like, wow. I'm like, where did it go? Um, so I would definitely say, you know, don't be afraid to put yourself out there. You don't know if you're gonna meet the best people of your life. Or you're like, oh my gosh, I never wanna talk to you again. Like you're a lesson, not a blessing. So, but other than that, and I would also say.

Like, just enjoy your life. And that's just [00:22:00] solely because you know, when you look around and you wake up every day and you're like, wow, like I get to actually live in Charleston. I actually get to go to school. Like to me, you know, college is very much a privilege, especially in this day and time, and I kind of like to look at it that way.

So try to stay positive is the key there. And what I would say is. Of course you're at college too. Have your fun. However, please remember that you are there for academics first and things like that, and just make sure that during your first semester, like taking some of these courses seriously because.

You guys are probably gonna be taking like a lot more like easier classes with like a much lighter load and it's always great to do great in those classes because you wanna start off with a 4.0 as that's gonna open the opportunity. That's gonna open up a lot of doors for a lot of opportunities down the other years of your college career.

And I would just say utilize. CSL as Lauren was saying, because I know last year, bio one 11, I'm [00:23:00] not gonna lie, it was, it was kicking my behind. Not gonna lie. However, I went to CSLI was like, okay, I need help. And my grace improved drastically. Test grades improved. So just utilize CSL because it truly is like a wonderful service that we offer at the College of Charleston.

Yeah, I would, I would also add too, that don't worry about getting into things right away. I didn't start my job here at CFC until my second semester, my sophomore year, and I didn't feel excluded from anything or like I was out of place in any way. I still went to events and things like that, but it wasn't.

As I'm not as evolved as I was and so, or I am now, I would say, um, but it doesn't necessarily have to start right away. You can give yourself a year to figure it out. College is about you figuring out how you wanna be in your life and, and we all find our identities and formulate [00:24:00] new opinions and points of views, and that's what you, we want you to do here.

We want you to think for yourself because not. Everybody is gonna be there all the time to help you, and you need to kind of, uh, find that out on your own and really find your way here. You guys are absolute pros. We are so lucky that you agreed to come and talk to us today. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it and, um, how lucky all of these kids coming in for orientation are to have you cheering them on.

I can't thank you enough. Um, and, and I look forward to seeing you around campus in the fall. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you for having. Thank you for listening to this episode of Speaking of College of Charleston with today's guests, Jaylen Bella and Lauren. For more episodes and to read stories about our guests, visit the College [00:25:00] of Charleston's official news site, the college today, at today.cfc.edu.

You can also find this and past episodes on all major podcasts. Platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review. This episode was produced by Amy Stockwell from University Communications with Recording and Sound Engineering by Jessie Ks from the Division of Information Technology.

Thanks again and we'll see you next time.