Orientation Camp Series – 10 things you need to know about Freshmen Orientation Camps

Freshmen Orientation Camps are very common and very popular in educational institutions. Every school, every entity and every hall has their own camps. Some are physically demanding (eg Sports Camp) while some focus on bonding friendships (Union Orientation Camp). Whichever camp you join, freshmen orientation camps aims to allow freshies to make friends and give them an early kick start to the school life that they will have to live through for the next 3 to 4 years in their life. In the first of a three part series, SGTOP10 now gives our readers and insight to one of the camps, together with some videos and pictures taken in the Union Orientation Camp.

Part 1 – 10 things you need to know about Freshmen Orientation Camps
Part 2 – 10 cheers to learn in orientation camps
Part 3 – 10 mins with an Orientation Group Leader

The Preparation
The preparation for the camp starts as early as 8 to 10 months before the camp starts. This includes identifying the theme of the camp, the organizing committee, getting sponsorship and booking of venues. This is usually done by the organizing committee which is known as the main committee. Each main committee section will have their own team members to help them with the activities. The team members are known as the sub-committee.

A few days before the camp, the group leader and his sub committee will have to arrange for meeting up with the freshies ( Freshmen ) to brief them on the dos and donts of the camp.

The Pre-Camp
Some groups execute this a few hours before the actual camp, while some groups do this a couple of days before. The objective of the pre-camp is to connect the seniors and freshies as ONE. The activities in the pre camp includes ice breaking activities, learning cheers and getting them prepared for the next 6-7 days

The Cheers
Cheering is an important part of the orientation camp. Everyone has to have a list of cheers under their sleeves. You will need to use it throughout the day. You cheer when you start a game. You cheer when you win a game. You cheer when you lose a game. You cheer when you eat. You just cheer whenever you have nothing to do. There is a cheer fight at the end of the camp. The cheer fight is a yearly competition which will show the unity and teamwork in each of the orientation groups.

The Ghost Walk
This is usually done either in the school compounds (making use of the tutorial rooms) or at a place with eerie atmosphere. This year we chose Lim Chu Kang Cemetery. What is the objective? Well it is to give the freshies a fright of course!

The Games
Orientation camps include games around the, out of campus games, in the pool games, telematches and many others. Main objective of the round campus games is to orientate the freshies to the school compound where they will be spending the next 3-4 years. There are many stations around the school campus where the orientation groups will need to go in a round robin manner, complete the tasks before going on to the next station. For the rest of the games, check out the video

The Secret Pal
Secret Pal ( SP ) is one of the key activities in camp. Each freshie will be asked to bring a SP gift to the camp. On the first few days, they will be allowed “to communicate” with their SP through written notes and there will be one meetup session where both is blindfolded.

On the actual SP day, usually near the end of the camp, they will meet up and be given a few hours to go on a date. Most end up just as friends, but some do end up tying the knot many years later….

The food

Day 1 – Mixed Vegetable Rice.
Day 2 – Mixed Vegetable Rice.
Day 3 – End of camp: Mixed Vegetable Rice
No other choices unless you are willing to pay out of your own pocket.
Boring.

The forfeits

The orientation camp forfeits are of the most fun. Forfeits can be as simple as just singing a song to as complex as making a commercial spoof. If you want to know more about the forfeits, drop us an email ?

The people

The people are mainly divided into 3 groups. The freshies, the leaders and seniors attached, and the main committee.

The freshies: These are the people who play the games, do the forfeits. These are also the people we put the welfare and happiness in the first priority

The seniors: The seniors facilitate the camp activities. They are always with the freshies and making sure their welfare and happiness is being taken care of

The main committee: These are the people who organize the camp. From the games to the food, their planning started many months prior to the actual camp.

The main task of the organizing committee is to organize the games.

The Spirit

The S Group Spirit: We do everything and anything to have fun. If something is NOT fun, then we will not do it.

If you ever want to arrange teambuilding events or need some help on events like this, drop us an email. We have tons of games, cheers and ideas in our back pocket. Most importantly, we have a group of people who are passionate about doing it and will definitely make your next event a memorable one