An important aspect of the Jesuit tradition is constant and deliberate reflection. Traditions such as the Daily Examine are designed to encourage people to think about the successes, failures, conflict and moments of peace that we all experience in quotidian life. During the course component of our academic internship, the Orientation Leaders were encouraged to continue this tradition through a series of reflection papers, presentations and discussions on our shared experiences. We wrote about our backgrounds, the skills we thought we possessed, what we thought we needed to improve upon and our opinions on the program as a whole. The four formal reflection papers I did for the class are in the next three subsections, while below is a final group presentation on one of the components of the Discover Loyola orientation program that I helped put together and present.

 

The Bridge Program is a part of Loyola's admissions and orientation process which gives an opportunity for students with lower than average GPAs or standardized test scores to get a head start on college. Several of my orientation leader peers and I had these students and observed some ways that our program could serve them better, mainly through opening more channels of communication about the program. The presentation below is a synthesis of our recommendations that we gave to our classmates and the director of the Office of First-Year Experience, Bridget Wesley.