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 On Thursday morning (August 24), the vehicles on the Alvernia College campus were marked Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and other primarily east coast states.
But the passengers all had one thing in common: they are part of Alvernia’s 2006 freshman class. More than 300 students begin the latest chapter in their educational journey with four days of orientation, acclimation, and their first college class.
On Thursday morning, vans, wagons, pickups and sedans rolled up to the residence halls and deposited the gear of freshmen resident students. Following lunch, all freshmen, and their parents, gathered inside the Alvernia College Physical Education Center to begin the orientation program.
Resident students began arriving early, many before 8 a.m. They used the morning time to unpack and decorate before their afternoon orientation sessions. That is when Alvernia President Dr. Thomas F. Flynn and other College leaders welcomed the new students and their parents and gave an overview of Alvernia College life. 
Parents and students then say their goodbyes as student headed off to their first college class, the First-Year Seminar. This required course introduces students to the challenges of college life inside and outside the classroom and provides information on time management and study skills, coping with stress, and the dangers of substance abuse.
Throughout the weekend, new students participated in a number of activities to acclimate them to the College, the Reading area, and to each other. In addition to on-campus activities, the students worked off campus Friday for an afternoon of service projects at locations such as Nolde Forest, Reading’s Confluence Point, Centro Hispano and the Reading Firefighter’s Museum. Through the projects, students discovered service as an integral part of the Alvernia College experience, and an important lifelong activity.
A Sunday evening convocation closes formal orientation activities as the new class gather to receive their College pins.
Upper-class students returned to campus Sunday evening with fall semester classes beginning Monday morning, August 28.
Updated:
September 19, 2006
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