Gianna Nitti

S.O.A.R.

Sponsored by T.A.L.O.N.S

June 25-27

I attended S.O.A.R. this year. S.O.A.R. is a leadership retreat offered to incoming freshman students before Move-In day and Welcome Week. The students who participate in S.O.A.R. get to move in a few days before the rest of the incoming students. This is a big advantage because it allows for a calmer and quicker move because there are fewer people and it is not crowded. When arriving at check in students are given a string of beads to represent which tribe they will become a part of. After moving in, separating into tribes and going through introductions, everyone travels to the YMCA Camp Ockanickon.

Tribes are separated by different colors. There are eight different tribes: Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Navy, Sky, and Purple. Each person receives a bag and a bandana of their color and this is used to identify which tribe a person is in. Being in a tribe allows you to bond with a smaller group of people which makes it easier to form friendships. At first, everyone was a bit scared but as we spent time together we all bonded with each other and our T.A.L.O.N.S. Every tribe had their own set of T.A.L.O.N.S. and they really made S.O.A.R. special because they took the time to bond with us and pushed us to really be our best. They also encouraged us to have a good time and open up because at first it was a bit awkward being with complete strangers but the T.A.L.O.N.S really made us excited to support our tribe and embrace the S.O.A.R. experience. While you are often in your tribe you are not limited to interacting only within your tribe because there are plenty of activities where tribes are combined. Another fun thing about tribes is that you develop competition between other tribes and a strong sense of pride for your own tribe.

At camp, the counselors there were really fun to be around and made the experience great. They took us through different team building activities such as icebreakers, leadership courses, team building games, high ropes, and free time activities such as kayaking, archery, yoga and many other interesting activities.

I would highly recommend attending S.O.A.R. to anyone who plans on coming to Stockton. I found it to be a fantastic opportunity because I got to meet people I may not have otherwise known and I formed great friendships with amazing people. It also made the transition into college a lot smoother, because I was able to slowly unpack early with family and avoided the hustle of Move-In day.  I already had a great group of friends to hang out with when I began my college experience, all because of S.O.A.R.  The experience was one hundred percent worth it and I made an incredible amount of memories with people I know I’ll stay close with for the rest of my years here at Stockton.