What your Orientation Leaders want you to know about Orientation

This year, 2025 New Student Orientation garnered around 4415 incoming students. This would not have been possible without the support from our amazing Orientation Leaders! Every year, hundreds of students and staff come together with the sole objective of supporting New Student Orientation.

From Welcome Ambassadors to Orientation Leaders, the UCalgary community is the backbone of a successful execution of New Student Orientation once again. 

So, to highlight all they do for our incoming students, we handed out some film cameras to Maryam, Maytee and Aubrey, and our Orientation Leaders delivered!

Maryam Alobaidy 

Hello! I’m Maryam, a second year Biomedical Sciences student at the University of Calgary, and I love to meet new people!

At Orientation, I got to meet many UCalgary students both new and old and had so much fun capturing the various experiences I went through during the two days of Orientation as an Orientation Leader.  

What was your most memorable experience at Orientation?

My most memorable experience as an OL was the UCalgaryStrong Carnival; the weather was lovely and people all around were laughing and enjoying themselves with the same games and food, regardless of program, age, or the fact that they all were practically strangers before coming to Orientation! Of course, I also enjoyed Faculty Orientation on the second day of Orientation as I enjoyed providing information to the newest members of my faculty.  

What are you looking forward to this year?

This year, I look forward to continuing to make new friends and getting to know even more people as I continue with my degree, as only studying and getting wrapped up in academics can get boring really fast. Here's to another year at UCalgary!

Maytee Negash

Hello! My name is Maytee, and I’m a fourth-year Chemistry student. This was my second time being an Orientation Leader (OL), and I signed up again because of how much fun I had last year.

What was your most memorable experience at Orientation?

Some of my most memorable moments from Orientation this year include helping at the speed friending events (which were super wholesome!), decorating lanyards in EEEL, and watching the Stampede Showband perform. I also had fun spotting Rex around campus. It was truly rewarding to get to connect with new students and with my fellow OLs.

What are you looking forward to this year?

This year, I’m looking forward to making the most of my final year and finishing up my degree! 

Aubrey McGregor-Beck

Hi, my name is Aubrey, I am in my second year of study in the Faculty of Arts, majoring in Biological Anthropology, with a minor in Archaeology.

What was your most memorable experience at Orientation?

My favorite experience was meeting all the people outside of my faculty and in my faculty creating new friendships with other OLs. Another highlight was guiding students to the Faculty of Arts Orientation–I loved it as I got to foster interactions with students from my faculty! 

What are you looking forward to this year?

Having a great school year and getting involved in more university hosted events, if possible.

Thank you to the 318 Orientation Leaders who came out and supported with such a successful Orientation!

Interested in learning more about some of our other Orientation Leaders? Catch them on our Instagram page here.