About 400 freshmen stroll through the doors of Riverside-Brookfield High School on their first day at their new school. The new students will have two hours, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. without any sophomores or upperclassmen, other than Student Association members there to help with orientation, in the school. This gave them time to find their homeroom and get acclimated to the school.

This year, for the first time, freshmen started school a day earlier than all other grades, on Tuesday, August 13. The administration, in conjunction with Student Association decided to change freshman orientation in order to make students transition to RB smoother, and allow new students more time to get used to the school without students in the grades above them.

Giving freshmen a day to themselves not only allowed them an extra day to get used to school, but it also gave SA members and administration the ability to make activities more organized and helpful than in past years. Having the whole day allowed time for extensive tours throughout the building, which gave freshmen the opportunity to get to know RB better.

“The freshmen having a whole day to themselves was nice, because it was on time, and we didn’t have to rush as much,” said SA Exec Board President Taylor Jurgens.

Another new feature of freshman orientation was an activity fair held in the field house. The activity fair featured all of the schools 20 varsity sports and 40 extracurricular activities. Sports and clubs set up tables throughout the fieldhouse, most featured sign up sheets in which freshmen could write down their name and contact information if they were interested in joining. It was Dr. Hector Freytas, RB’s new principal, who pushed for the activity fair to be moved from September to the freshman’s first day of school, he wanted this in order to get RB’s new students involved in sports and activities as early as possible.

“It only makes sense to me to engage our first year students, our 9th graders, our freshmen right off the bat, when I found out that traditionally our freshmen activities fair was not done until September I wasn’t a big fan of it, because in four or five weeks maybe your not engaged, maybe you start hanging out, you lose interest. The purpose was to engage as many freshmen as soon as possible,” said Freytas.

While the school’s administration played a major role in orientation, it was 50 members of S.A. who came into school a day earlier than they had to help out with multiple activities throughout the day. S.A. members led tours through the building to familiarize freshmen with the school, gave a presentation which includes the “Top ten tips on how to be successful in high school,” as well as helping set up for the activity fair in the fieldhouse.

Both members of the administration, S.A., and class of 2023 thought that this year’s freshman orientation was successful in allowing freshmen the best opportunity to succeed at RB possible.

“I am hopeful that it was helpful,” said  Freytas.