SFU Beedie’s unique orientation experience aims to help increase success for its new students

SFU Beedie Launch—a three-day orientation program designed to help ensure student success at the university.

In early September, Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business hyped up 300 of its students at a pep rally as they broke up into teams and faced off against one another in a unique cross-campus competition at SFU’s Burnaby Campus.

The pep rally and cross-campus competition is a part of SFU Beedie Launch—a three-day orientation program designed to help ensure student success at the university. The new students, coming directly from high school, learned how to make the most of the campus services offered at the university, networked with their professors and gained inside knowledge on strategies for academic success.

“Through SFU Beedie Launch, our new students are taking an important step forward in the next chapter of their lives,” says Peter Tingling, associate dean of undergraduate programs. “This interactive three-day orientation program was developed to help ensure our students make a smooth transition into life here at the university as well as help with their academic success.”

Through various team-based activities at the cross-campus competition, students learned more about SFU Beedie services, support programs, and how to work together to successfully build their university community. These activities include: wall climbing, a ball pit challenge, bubble ball soccer, a teamwork skills workshop, and more.

“Our Beedie community is really close knit group and that’s what makes it so special,” says Devan Parmar, third-year SFU Beedie BBA student. “When I was a first-year student, my Launch leaders made a tremendous impact on me by helping me feel like I was at home. They are still very special people in my life and they have inspired me to pay it forward as an SFU Beedie Launch leader.”

Later this week, SFU Beedie will hold a similar orientation program for its new transfer students called SFU Beedie Transfer Launch Orientation.