Fanshawe’s family is made up of roughly 21,000 members across different disciplines and the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) is here to make students feel welcome during their time at school.

During September and specifically the first two weeks of the month, the FSU will be hosting events almost every day to welcome incoming students and facilitate environments where students can meet others with similar interests.

Other events will be happening all throughout the month and every month of the school year.

During the first month of the school year, students are invited to take part in both free and “student- friendly priced events” FSU president, Jahmoyia Smith, said. She added that most events also include free food.

There will be a variety of events happening throughout the day (both morning and evening events) with orientation day being on Sept. 4.

Some events throughout frosh involve music, such as Buskerfest, Bollywood night and the big frosh concert featuring Canadian country, brother-sister act, The Reklaws, being some of the more highly anticipated ones.

For fitness enthusiasts, there will be goat yoga.

Other events happening during the month include a presentation by sexologist, Dr. Justine Shuey, XXX hypnotist Tony Lee and Monsters of Shlock.

“The theme [for Frosh Week this year] is ‘Falcon Lit’ – let’s have fun, let’s have a great start to the year,” FSU events and activities co-ordinator, Tyler Hetherington, said.

“There’s something for everybody in the first two weeks, whether you just want to have some fun with some goats doing yoga and take it easy or you want to get real messy and crazy, then come to the paint party. The frosh concert is going to be an amazing show, featuring an amazing Canadian act: The Reklaws, who are about to smash it big,” Hetherington said.

Student life co-ordinator, Andrew Waterworth urges students to “get involved” and to get a “wider student life”.

He said he believes that it starts “right at Frosh week, in first year”.

He urges students to go to as many events as possible to meet new people and to get involved and be a bigger part of the Fanshawe College community.

Smith recalls her first week at Fanshawe and signed up to be a volunteer for the FSU, prior to arriving to Canada as an international student. Smith said she went to “every single frosh event… e ven ‘Break The Ice’ night and I wasn’t even [living in residence]”.

Smith also said she is “most excited for residence move-in for the weekend because it’s when the most students are on campus”.

She said she is keen on chatting with new students and parents coming in and (the FSU) making a good first impression of Fanshawe for them.

The events happening all month are avenues for new students to mingle and get to know each other and form connections that extend beyond their programs.

Smith said she believes that getting a well-rounded college experience extends pass the classroom.

“It’s not just about going to your classes or completing your program. In order to be a complete student, you need to have more than your program under your belt,” Smith said. “You’ll never get your first year back, no matter how many times you come back to college so make the most out of it.”

For incoming first-year students, Smith had a few parting word to share with them.

“Make use of your first year, because you never get your first year back.”

For a comprehensive list of events happening in September, check out fsu.ca/events