Monday’s Columbus Day open house brought a familiar sight to the NIU campus, at least for those students, faculty and staff who are here during the summer months.
Courtesy of the energetic staff of NIU’s Orientation & First-Year Experience, high school students and their families — usually including parents and sometimes siblings, grandparents, cousins and others — descend on campus day after day during June and July to learn more about the NIU experience.
They are guided in their day-long journeys by current NIU students dressed in bright red shirts and khaki shorts who walk backward while they explain student life, point out important buildings and special places and even spin a few yarns about kissing benches and headless grotesques.
Nathan LaForte, one of those orientation leaders, spent some time this summer talking about what he does, why he loves it and what a difference it makes for those future Huskies about to start their college lives.
