NSE leaders provide keys to UNL
Students dish out facts, folklore to freshmen
By Sandy Summers
StaffWriter
They are the masters of little
known university folklore. They will
teach you how to plan your class
schedule and tell you where your
adviser is hiding.
They can do all this and still have
enough energy to walk the entire
UNL campus backwards. Who you
ask? Why you needn’t look any fur
ther than a UNL New Student
Enrollment orientation leader.
These student leaders serve as
some of first representatives future
UNL students will see on their June,
July or August visit. They serve as
guides and promoters for the univer
sity and are a constant sight to cam
pus regulars during the summer.
Amy Nguyen, a junior marketing
major, said she became an orientation
leader because she admired the ones
she saw as an incoming freshman, not
to mention she liked the idea of all the
attention she would receive.
“I’ve always been one of those
people who likes being on stage in
front of people,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen and other NSE leaders
get plenty of attention. Their job
requires them, among other things, to
perform in a 90-minute skit and give
campus tours.
“Tours can ranjge from 20 minutes
to three hours,” said NSE leader Scott
Franzen, a senior pre-medicine and
English major.
But becoming a good NSE leader
requires more than learning to walk
backwards. All NSE leaders must
take an educational psychology class
their spring semester and undergo
three weeks of training before New
Student Enrollment begins.
Most of their class time is spent
learning to relate to people from
diverse backgrounds and making new
students feel comfortable at the uni
versity. The class also requires each
NSE leader to write two office
reports summarizing research they
have compiled on the college in
which they are majoring. The last part
of their class is spent working on the
New Student Orientation skits.
“I play Yoda in our skit,” Nguyen
said. “So far every tour I’ve given
every student has commented on how
well I’ve done Yoda. I think that’s
really funny because I’ve never actu
ally seen the ‘Star Wars’ movie.”
For Franzen the skits have proved
a little more difficult. Franzen said
his most embarrassing situation so far
during NSE has been forgetting his
lines to the skit in front of a group of
90 students.
“The other NSE leaders tried to
give me hints to what my next lines
were but I just couldn’t remember
them,” Franzen said.
Aside from memorizing lines to
their skits, NSE leaders say it’s also
helpful to remember interesting cam
pus folklore and facts when they’re
giving their tours.
“I think students like to hear the
fun facts about the university because
all the technical aspects they’ll learn
on their own time,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen’s favorite folk tale is
about the columns outside Weir Track
near Memorial Stadium.
“The legend says that if a female
NU student graduates in four years
without being kissed and she walks
past the columns one of them is sup
posed to fall,” Nguyen said. “And
they’re all still standing.”
Franzen said his favorite campus
fact is about Hamilton Hall. Franzen
said the hall was designed to mini
mize damage in the event of an explo
sion.
“If one section were to blow up, it
would implode so the other two sec
tions wouldn’t blow up,” Franzen
said.
Fun facts and folklore aren’t the
only things students like to hear
about. Melissa Pittenger, a recent
graduate of Lincoln Southeast who
recently completed NSE, said she
was most interested in getting to see
the dorm rooms.
“I thought that was cool,”
Pittenger said, who requested a room
in Sandoz. “I liked getting an idea
what my room would look like next
year.”
Pittenger said the NSE leaders
helped her decide which classes she
should take next year and how to use
the university’s NRoll registration
system. While she would have liked a
better description of classes,
Pittenger said, she was really happy
with New Student Enrollment over
all.
“It really got me excited for next
year,” said Pittenger, who plans to
major in finance. “Getting my sched
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The \egend says that if a female NU
student graduates in four years without
being kissed and she walks past the
columns one of them is supposed to fall.
And they re all still standing.”
Amy Nguyen
NSE orientation leader
ule, seeing the dorms and my college
put everything into perspective.”
For Franzen, making students
comfortable with the university and
excited for the coming school year is
what NSE is all about.
“I can remember back to when I
was a new student going through
NSE and what kind of things I wanted
to know about,” Franzen said.
“They’re at a point where they really
want to take charge of their life.
That’s what we’re here to help them
with: creating their independence.”
But living through the strenuous
schedule NSE leaders keep can be
tough. NSE leaders are required to
work not only New Sthdent
Enrollment, but also Big Red
Welcome, late registration and trans
fer student’s registration. The main
NSE lasts for five weeks during the
first summer section. Leaders will
usually give tours five to six times a
week.
Nguyen said she has to wake up at
6 a.m. .everyday so she can be ready
for NSE by 6:50, 10 minutes before
students start showing up at 7. From
that moment on things keep moving
at a hectic pace so everything a new
student needs to do can be accom
plished in one day.
“Every single minute in our day is
planned,” Nguyen said.
Despite the hectic schedule, the
long hours of class and the sometimes
obscure questions he gets asked on
tours, Franzen said, w,hen NSE is over
he would be thankful for the chance it
gave him to meet so many new stu
dents and parents. *
“I’ll never forget. One parent
asked me if the Christmas lights in
my dorm room came with the loft,”
Franzen said. ,
“I’m still not sure if he was kid
ding.”
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