H2O-Week

 

 Oktoberfest (2)    coordinators

Click here to view the H2O-Week book!

 What is O-Week?

If there’s one thing Rice doesn’t take chances with, it’s making sure you have a community that will help you prosper. Plenty of other schools offer an orientation program, but only Rice has O-Week. Orientation Week (O-Week) is your first formal introduction to Rice University and Martel College. O-Week is designed to be 50% fun and 50% academic. This means that the week includes a wide range of events and activities. You will hear speeches from the President and faculty members, see presentations from various departments, and learn all the ins and outs of general college life. Because Rice is no ordinary university, getting an introduction to all the quirks and institutional secrets will take a full week, but don’t worry. You will have a great time. The transitional week is packed with everything from physically moving in on the first day to class registration to icebreakers to late night food runs to impossibly ridiculous activities to traditional festivities. In fact, many Rice alumni still cite Orientation Week as the highlight of their Rice experience. To many, O-Week is like an additional birthday in August, for there are so many dedicated upperclassmen (advisors) there giving up weeks of their summer to come back early to cater to your every need. The goal of O-Week is to thoroughly acclimate you to college life both socially and academically. While you might not have all the answers immediately, the structure of O-Week allows for each student to have at least one “go to” person before classes even start. O-Week is about making the goodbyes easier, and your beginnings at Rice and Martel that much easier.

coordinators

Mission Statement

We want to create a warm, inclusive environment that welcomes student to be comfortable with themselves and feel like an integral part of the Martel and Rice community. From this environment, we hope to inspire new Martelians to take the initiative in getting involved the in something that holds meaning for them whether this be at Martel, at Rice, or beyond the hedges.

What is H2O-Week?

If you think of Rice as a swimming pool, then O-Week is in many ways the action of getting your feet. During the week you will be introduced to Rice academics, students, and traditions. While this may sound daunting at first, rest assured that O-Week is also considered by many to be the most exciting and memorable week of their lives. And Martel’s O-Week team will be something like the lifeguards who are here to cheer you on and ensure that this action-packed week goes swimmingly.