Food, fun and games greet frosh as orientation rolls on

The University welcomed about 2,400 new freshmen this week with enough parties and free food to last them until the Greek fraternities begin to officially hold parties later this month. From Saturday to Tuesday, more than 30 events and workshops organized by the New Student Orientation committee kept the first-years busy as they explored their new surroundings and rubbed elbows with new acquaintances. "This is the most fun I've ever had," Wharton freshman Marisa Tuchinsky said. "In a week we've met so many people I consider good friends. It can only get better, I guess." Tuchinsky was just one of hundreds of freshmen who, oblivious to Monday night's downpour, ventured out to the Class of 1920 Commons for Freshman Casino Night, revamped this year to include a coffee house and added activities. Wharton senior and NSO organizer Graham Rigby explained that the group tried to make Casino Night fun for all freshmen, even those who did not want to gamble. Students traded chips won at the card tables for raffle tickets redeemable for prizes. Meanwhile, others got tangled up in an ultra-sized game of Twister, while some received free henna tattoos or watched five Penn performing arts groups showcase their work in a coffeehouse atmosphere. Earlier in the day, freshmen in each college house attended receptions for all students in the house, including upperclassmen. Today, freshmen have the option of attending a number of academic workshops and college tips seminars. Tomorrow, new students can acquaint themselves with Penn's striking new retail complex at the Sansom Common Street Fair, a block party that will include live music, free food and booths set up by area vendors. Orientation isn't all fun and games, however. On Sunday, freshmen took a 90-minute break from the hubbub to acclimate themselves to the academic side of college life through discussions of the Penn Summer Reading Project book. In one group of 11 students who met with English Professor Peter Conn, all but one student had read the book, The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, and all had opinions to share. Conn challenged the students to explore how the book, which examines the author's struggle to reconcile her family's cultural history with her life as an American, related to their own lives. The students said they identified with the author's idea of a ghost of the past weighing her down. Reflecting on the discussion, Nursing freshman Kate Richards noted that the foreign students in her group added another dimension to the discussion. "Students from other countries could understand what the author was going through," she said. After the discussions were over, students flocked to the Quadrangle for the annual Dance Party, which attracted huge crowds this year. Other NSO events included a picnic on Hill Field and a box-lunch event at the Annenberg Plaza. Still, College freshman Andrea Zawerczuk lamented, "I miss home food." NSO also sponsored events specifically for incoming international students. Wharton freshman Phoebe Belcher from Australia found these special orientation programs reassuring. "The size of the groups that they organized us into were small enough that you didn't feel too lost," Belcher said. "They understood the position that we were in, coming from another country and scared." Other events were geared toward the 60 or so freshman commuter students that entered Penn this year, said Laurie McCall, associate director of Academic Support Programs and one of three NSO coordinators. McCall explained that commuter students are assigned to a college house and are then invited to the house's events throughout the year. New Student Orientation will continue in the coming weeks with the Into the Streets community service project this Saturday, additional optional workshops, and shopping trips to South Street, Manayunk and King of Prussia.