COLUMBUS, Miss.-- A fantasy is the free play of creative imagination.
Mississippi University for Women’s Student Orientation Assistants got a
chance to make fantasy a reality March 7-9 at the Southern Regional
Orientation Workshop in Greensboro, N.C.
More than 70 schools participated in the conference with a total of
more than 1,500 students in attendance.
The SOAs placed fifth in the skit competition by utilizing the fantasy
world of the Smurfs, beating out the field of 20 in this division.
“MUW’s SOAs have completed several years in the skit competition, but
this is the first time they won an award,” director of student development
Wahnee Sherman, who co-directs orientation, said. “I was very proud of our
team. The competition can be overwhelming because many schools have 40 to
50 orientation assistants, but our students represented The W so well.
They worked very hard on their skit all semester. They came up with the
idea of the Smurf skit and developed it from scratch. They also worked
hard on their costuming. Being in front of that many people can be scary,
but they performed well.”
The SOAs practiced two mornings each week this semester at 6 a.m. to
prepare for the SROW competition.
Sophomore Katie Hybnerova, co-head SOA, said, “I was so excited when we
won fifth place, and I was very proud of all the SOAs. We put in a lot of
hard work throughout the whole semester and I am so happy that we have
something to show for it. We all went to SROW with the attitude that we
wanted to win, not just go up there and perform. We wanted to compete and
we certainly did that."
Louisiana Tech, Alabama State, Clark Atlantic and Louisville were the
other universities that placed in the skit competition.
Sherman, who also helps select the SOAs and train them, said the team
is hard at work now selling ads for the orientation booklet for this
summer’s program. Sherman said, “This [booklet] gives campus organizations
and departments the opportunity for incoming students to be familiar with
them…[SOAs] will return this summer for two weeks of orientation. It will
be an intense two weeks of late nights and early mornings, but we will
have a good time as well.”
