The first day of Orientation Week 2016

August 18, 2016

The first day of Orientation Week 2016 started with the Welcoming Ceremony of Freshmen. American University of Central Asia (AUCA) president Andrew Wachtel gave the freshmen a few introductory pieces of advice:

“This is the biggest freshmen class ever at AUCA, there are at least 350 of you, and it’s also the most diverse class that AUCA has ever had. You come from all sorts of different countries. Students are coming from some really exotic countries and I’m not sure they’ve all made it here yet. We have one student who is coming from South Africa. We have student from Italy, Germany, Canada, the United States, Kyrgyz students, a nice big group of Afghans, Tajiks, some from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and from Turkmenistan even. So what you will learn over the next four years, I hope, is to live in really complicated and difficult world. That world requires you to know things, and even more so, that world requires you to be able to do things—mostly to get along with other people, to be able to deal with uncomfortable situations, with new situations, with situations in which you don’t know what’s going on around you. Freshmen orientation is the first day when you confronted by something totally new. Everything is new, everything is strange, and the most important thing to remember is that it’s new and strange for everybody. You’re not by yourself. We have this amazing group of volunteers to help you. You can notice them by their red t-shirts and their smiles. If you have a problem, they’re here to help you. We also have peer-advisors here to help you. If you have a question and don’t know who to turn to, turn to anybody!”