Summer orientation is the first exposure to what campus life is like at the

University of Tennessee for students enrolling as freshmen this fall. About

250 students come to orientation for each of the 14 two-day sessions, about

3,500 students total.

During the two-day sessions, students tour the campus, take placement

tests, get their student ID cards made and attend skits which portray

campus life. Students said their first day at orientation lasted from about

8 a.m. until about 9:30 at night.

Students come from all over to attend orientation and decide to go to UT

for academic and personal reasons.

Incoming freshman Dennis LaPoint of Memphis said he wanted to come to UT

“for its good engineering program, plus it’s affordable.”

His friend Eric Wesley, also from Memphis, had completely opposite reasons

for his enrollment.

“Mom wanted me to go out of town for school. I’ve wanted to go here since I

was a little kid,” Wesley said.

Orientation is more than just taking tests and touring campus. It is also

about meeting new people and adjusting to a new life.

Katherine Thurman of Columbus, Ga. was trying to make those adjustments.

She said Columbus was a pretty small town and that there were only about

250 people in her graduating class.

“It’s pretty intimidating coming to a bigger place,” Thurman said.

She was also trying to meet new people who were out of state like her. “Not

very many people aren’t from Tennessee. I’ve only met two,” Thurman said.

Thurman did meet someone else from a small town, Kelci Breeding of

Morristown, while going to the Big Orange Bash, a dance party for

orientation students.

“I’m ready to get away from a small town. I’m real excited about it. I’ve

never heard anybody say a negative thing about UT,” Breeding said about her

upcoming move to campus this fall.