May 29, 2025 • 12 mins
First impressions matter and are lasting so Marcus Powell, Assistant Director of Student Orientation & Engagement, seeks to make sure that Life University students not only get off to a good start in their higher education but they find places to get connected and feel engaged with their campus.
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S1 (00:30):
Hi guys. Welcome to another episode of Living Life at Life. Hugh,
I am your host, Doctor Veronica Garcia, and today I
am joined by a very important member of our life
university community, Mr. Marcus Powell. Hi. Welcome.
S2 (00:41):
Thank you. Hi. How are you?
S1 (00:42):
I'm so great. How are you today?
S2 (00:44):
I'm doing pretty good. Yeah. You know, enjoying the weather? Yes.
S1 (00:48):
Finally warming up in Georgia. Thank you. So, Marcus, tell
me a little bit of what's your role at Life University?
S2 (00:55):
Yeah. So I am the assistant director of orientation and
student belonging. And so, um, my job consists of just
planning the orientation for our incoming, uh, DC students, undergrads, um,
and a little bit of the graduate students, um, they
have a more specialized, um, experience with some folks. Um,
(01:16):
and then over the last quarter, I've started working with
our online, uh, distance education students as well to plan
an online orientation. That's awesome. And then outside of that,
occasionally I plan some programs over in the Commons and
here in Siegas, uh, just for our students to have, uh,
(01:36):
a welcoming experience. So if you saw anyone walking around
with flowers on Valentine's Day, that was me. I passed
out carnations to some of our students. Just as kind
of like a happy experience for them on Valentine's Day. So, yeah.
S1 (01:51):
That's really beautiful. Thank you for doing something like that.
That's really awesome. I think that orientation is such an
important piece to, um, coming in into any institution, whether
it is a new job or a new, um, an
educational institution itself. It is such an important role, an
important piece. So let's talk about it. Tell me a
(02:11):
little bit about like those differences, main differences on, on
on orientation. And how long does orientation last a life university.
S2 (02:17):
Yeah. Um so orientation lasts about two days. Right now
there are some changes that are coming in the future, potentially, um,
one to shorten the orientation day, but to add more
activities for students to get involved and kind of find
their community on campus. Um, some of the differences are
mainly just kind of like their introduction into the community. Um,
(02:41):
so for the chiropractic students, they get to participate in
more of a seminar experience with some of the professors. Uh,
they still do some icebreakers and those things in that session. But, um,
that's more so planned by the chiropractors when it comes
to what that seminar looks like. And then our undergraduate
and graduate students, they get to participate in L.A., which
(03:03):
is experiential learning activities. And so they do all the fun,
human not stuff. Uh, the activities where you have to, like,
guide somebody through some type of maze or something. And
so it's more so a community building and and talking
about what from that experience, they can take into the
classroom or into other activities, especially since, you know, a
(03:24):
lot of our students here are athletes. And so what
that looks like to just participate on a team on
a regular basis. Uh, so those are the main differences. Um,
but yeah, we're definitely trying to restructure and do some
things a little bit different. Yeah. Um, we're hoping that
in the summer we can add on a experience afterwards
(03:44):
where we take students bowling or just something in the area,
so they get to know the Marietta community a little
bit more as well. Um, so yeah.
S1 (03:52):
That's really awesome. That's a great idea. I love that,
I love that it's I think that I've still to
this day remember my, my orientation has been 14 years.
Thank you. Um, but I still to this day remember it.
And I still keep in touch with two people that
I met at orientation. And then all of a sudden,
they were in my classroom. I'm like, okay, great. I
love that you're here too, because, you know, I'm not
(04:12):
the only person that's just randomly sitting in a corner. Um,
but it's such a I think it's really interesting also
to see the growth because as a student, I had
the opportunity also to volunteer, um, in orientation and just
be there for the new incoming students and to see
that growth of that very first checking moment. By the
end of it, I'm like, okay, we got a buddy
(04:34):
over here. We got a whole family member over there.
We have lifelong communities here. It is so, so nice
to see that.
S2 (04:40):
The extension goes wide.
S1 (04:42):
So I love it. I love, I love, love, love
the growth. Um, tell me what what inspired you to
be in a position like this one?
S2 (04:50):
Yeah. Um, so I've been in student affairs or the
higher education realm since I was an RA. Um, so
I was that person that was greeting the kids at
the door with their parents, moving them into their room,
getting them settled into their experience at college, especially because
I had such a positive experience. Um, you talked about
remembering orientation. I remember our orientation to, um, and it
(05:13):
was just such an amazing experience that I just wanted
to be a part of that. So I took the
route professionally. Um, and after spending about seven years in Iowa,
I decided to move down here, um, to be with
my sister and her husband and her kids. Um, and
I was just looking for something different because I had
been in residence life for so long. Um, but I
(05:35):
still wanted to have an impact on the students and
come and experience. And so I felt like orientation was
a positive route to go, just because I would get
to interact with students in some capacity, um, and make
an impact on what their experience is like. Um, and
I'm a very restorative person, so it's fun coming in
and being able to have the opportunity to think of
new ideas, um, and kind of pitch them to different
(05:59):
folks that are here in the life view community. So yeah.
S1 (06:03):
That's really exciting. I love that that it sounds like
you're in so much ease and peace in this, in
this role. I love it, I love it, I.
S2 (06:11):
Try to live my life in and service.
S1 (06:16):
How long have you been at Life University?
S2 (06:18):
I've been here a year and a month.
S1 (06:21):
Congratulations.
S2 (06:22):
Happy anniversary. It was March 4th, so. Yes. Thank you.
S1 (06:26):
That's really awesome. I love having you here. I'm telling
you this, this vide. If you're watching, you see it.
I hope that you can also hear it and feel it. Um,
but I absolutely love it. It's it's really great. And
tell me a little bit about what what those things
outside of orientation. So you mentioned Valentine's Day. Is there
anything else that is coming in or that you've made
an impact or a change before?
S2 (06:47):
Yeah. So um, I've also did like the folks that
are in my office. So Vincent Hinton, um, he is
the director of counseling services and student belonging, and then
Emily Saxon Phillips, she is the multicultural coordinator of student Belonging. Um,
so during week ten, the three of us tend to
get together and put together some type of activity. Um,
(07:09):
so we've done things from like, uh, bringing Kona ice
to campus. Um, we've done a like I'm blanking on
all of the activities that we've done. We did partner
with housing recently. We did like a stuff a critter activity.
We've done quite a few things. I know Emily, tomorrow
(07:29):
she's having, uh, the Holly color run. Okay. Um, so
they're supposed to do, like, a mile run around campus
and then come back. If you've ever seen a color
run where they, like, throw the. Yeah, dust paint at you.
They're supposed to do stuff like that. Um, we also
did an activity with athletics where we kind of tried
to convince students to come to the basketball game and
(07:51):
then gave away prizes. We gave away prizes to Bolero,
we gave away movie gift cards. Um, we gave away food,
gift cards, quite a few things. So we try to
do something every week ten and kind of prepare students
going into finals. Yeah. Um, so that they kind of
have a relaxation. Um, one of the main things that
(08:11):
I'm working on right now, I crochet, um, and so
I'm trying to bring some crochet activities to campus because
it is such a like, fun and relaxing activity to
do just so students can get together. Uh, the fun
name that I came up with was Common Threads.
S1 (08:28):
I love that.
S3 (08:30):
I love that.
S2 (08:32):
So, um, hoping to get that off the ground so
that students can get to learn something new, do something
with their hands while they're just chilling in their room
and relaxing.
S1 (08:42):
Step away from just the reading and the books and
the and the screens and just relax the brain and
work with, uh, right lobes. Exactly. I love that. Um,
this is so interesting because I think that it is
such a great job of creating opportunities for engagement and
growth and whatnot, but to bring things like that, I
(09:03):
remember once upon a time, um, student engagement, they had
done a spend the day at Six Flags Over Georgia. Oh,
it was such a cool experience. And we all just went.
And there was, of course, like a student pricing ticket
and whatnot. You had to get it ahead of time.
They had an option for either you drive yourself or
(09:25):
we have a bus or meet here at that this time.
And I like of course, I mean, probably 12 years later,
I'm still talking about it. It was really, really cool. Right?
But there's so much to do in Marietta, Georgia. We
are in the heart of we're just 15 minutes away
from downtown, ten minutes away from everything like uptown, downtown. Right. Everything. Um,
but also Marietta Heart has such amazing places to be.
(09:47):
So for people and students that may be coming to
orientation that haven't had a college experience, but also haven't
had a Marietta, Georgia experience. It is such a great
place to start learning these things and and connecting with people. Um,
I have a burning question. Yes, okay. I remember that
at orientation I had my ID done printed and the
(10:09):
whole the picture and whatnot. Do we still do this?
S2 (10:11):
We do. Take your picture or I shouldn't say we do. Uh,
car services takes your picture. Um, it is not a
hard copy, though. There's on your phone now, so students
have to. I think it's called trans Lock. Yeah. My
memory serves me correct. They have to download that and
follow all the steps. Um, but as a students register
(10:32):
for orientation, um, Car Services will send out emails to
all the incoming students so that they can go through
the process to get their IDs before they get to campus.
And then if you're already on campus, um, you just
their office or where they operate out of is in
the life you shop. So.
S1 (10:50):
Okay. That's awesome. Oh, thank you, thank you. I don't
know why I had that burning question for you. Do
they still print them?
S2 (10:57):
No. They they like we'll but it's it doesn't seem
like that's their goal.
S1 (11:03):
Yeah I see that I see that that's really awesome. Well,
thank you so much for your time. Thank you for
being here. Thank you for that love and that passion
that you bring to the students and the ease and peace,
because it can be when you get to college, it
can be a little bit threatening. You're excited.
S2 (11:18):
You're not wrong.
S1 (11:19):
But there's a lot of change going on at the
same time. And all of a sudden you're an adult.
S2 (11:23):
Exactly. And it's a big change. So yeah.
S1 (11:28):
I love that someone, um, I think posted around, I
saw I think I saw online, someone said the, uh,
worst hood you can be is adulthood.
S3 (11:38):
And I was like, you know, it could be great.
S1 (11:40):
But also if you don't get prepared.
S3 (11:42):
It can.
S2 (11:42):
Look, it can.
S3 (11:43):
Be really hard. Yes.
S2 (11:45):
So my mom, a couple days ago, I'll come back home.
S3 (11:48):
So.
S2 (11:49):
But no, I love.
S3 (11:50):
It, I love it.
S1 (11:50):
Well, thank you for being that transition and that bridge
and that ease for the students and bringing all these
beautiful activities with your team so that everybody feels at
home life, University. It's a great place. And I don't
say that because I've been here for a long time.
I say because I love it, um, but I hope
to keep you forever.
S3 (12:07):
Thank you.
S1 (12:08):
Well, thank you, Marcus, so much for your time. And
thank you guys for joining us on another episode of
Living Life Alive. You have a beautiful day.
S4 (12:14):
Bye bye.
Hi guys. Welcome to another episode of Living Life at Life. Hugh,
I am your host, Doctor Veronica Garcia, and today I
am joined by a very important member of our life
university community, Mr. Marcus Powell. Hi. Welcome.
S2 (00:41):
Thank you. Hi. How are you?
S1 (00:42):
I'm so great. How are you today?
S2 (00:44):
I'm doing pretty good. Yeah. You know, enjoying the weather? Yes.
S1 (00:48):
Finally warming up in Georgia. Thank you. So, Marcus, tell
me a little bit of what's your role at Life University?
S2 (00:55):
Yeah. So I am the assistant director of orientation and
student belonging. And so, um, my job consists of just
planning the orientation for our incoming, uh, DC students, undergrads, um,
and a little bit of the graduate students, um, they
have a more specialized, um, experience with some folks. Um,
(01:16):
and then over the last quarter, I've started working with
our online, uh, distance education students as well to plan
an online orientation. That's awesome. And then outside of that,
occasionally I plan some programs over in the Commons and
here in Siegas, uh, just for our students to have, uh,
(01:36):
a welcoming experience. So if you saw anyone walking around
with flowers on Valentine's Day, that was me. I passed
out carnations to some of our students. Just as kind
of like a happy experience for them on Valentine's Day. So, yeah.
S1 (01:51):
That's really beautiful. Thank you for doing something like that.
That's really awesome. I think that orientation is such an
important piece to, um, coming in into any institution, whether
it is a new job or a new, um, an
educational institution itself. It is such an important role, an
important piece. So let's talk about it. Tell me a
(02:11):
little bit about like those differences, main differences on, on
on orientation. And how long does orientation last a life university.
S2 (02:17):
Yeah. Um so orientation lasts about two days. Right now
there are some changes that are coming in the future, potentially, um,
one to shorten the orientation day, but to add more
activities for students to get involved and kind of find
their community on campus. Um, some of the differences are
mainly just kind of like their introduction into the community. Um,
(02:41):
so for the chiropractic students, they get to participate in
more of a seminar experience with some of the professors. Uh,
they still do some icebreakers and those things in that session. But, um,
that's more so planned by the chiropractors when it comes
to what that seminar looks like. And then our undergraduate
and graduate students, they get to participate in L.A., which
(03:03):
is experiential learning activities. And so they do all the fun,
human not stuff. Uh, the activities where you have to, like,
guide somebody through some type of maze or something. And
so it's more so a community building and and talking
about what from that experience, they can take into the
classroom or into other activities, especially since, you know, a
(03:24):
lot of our students here are athletes. And so what
that looks like to just participate on a team on
a regular basis. Uh, so those are the main differences. Um,
but yeah, we're definitely trying to restructure and do some
things a little bit different. Yeah. Um, we're hoping that
in the summer we can add on a experience afterwards
(03:44):
where we take students bowling or just something in the area,
so they get to know the Marietta community a little
bit more as well. Um, so yeah.
S1 (03:52):
That's really awesome. That's a great idea. I love that,
I love that it's I think that I've still to
this day remember my, my orientation has been 14 years.
Thank you. Um, but I still to this day remember it.
And I still keep in touch with two people that
I met at orientation. And then all of a sudden,
they were in my classroom. I'm like, okay, great. I
love that you're here too, because, you know, I'm not
(04:12):
the only person that's just randomly sitting in a corner. Um,
but it's such a I think it's really interesting also
to see the growth because as a student, I had
the opportunity also to volunteer, um, in orientation and just
be there for the new incoming students and to see
that growth of that very first checking moment. By the
end of it, I'm like, okay, we got a buddy
(04:34):
over here. We got a whole family member over there.
We have lifelong communities here. It is so, so nice
to see that.
S2 (04:40):
The extension goes wide.
S1 (04:42):
So I love it. I love, I love, love, love
the growth. Um, tell me what what inspired you to
be in a position like this one?
S2 (04:50):
Yeah. Um, so I've been in student affairs or the
higher education realm since I was an RA. Um, so
I was that person that was greeting the kids at
the door with their parents, moving them into their room,
getting them settled into their experience at college, especially because
I had such a positive experience. Um, you talked about
remembering orientation. I remember our orientation to, um, and it
(05:13):
was just such an amazing experience that I just wanted
to be a part of that. So I took the
route professionally. Um, and after spending about seven years in Iowa,
I decided to move down here, um, to be with
my sister and her husband and her kids. Um, and
I was just looking for something different because I had
been in residence life for so long. Um, but I
(05:35):
still wanted to have an impact on the students and
come and experience. And so I felt like orientation was
a positive route to go, just because I would get
to interact with students in some capacity, um, and make
an impact on what their experience is like. Um, and
I'm a very restorative person, so it's fun coming in
and being able to have the opportunity to think of
new ideas, um, and kind of pitch them to different
(05:59):
folks that are here in the life view community. So yeah.
S1 (06:03):
That's really exciting. I love that that it sounds like
you're in so much ease and peace in this, in
this role. I love it, I love it, I.
S2 (06:11):
Try to live my life in and service.
S1 (06:16):
How long have you been at Life University?
S2 (06:18):
I've been here a year and a month.
S1 (06:21):
Congratulations.
S2 (06:22):
Happy anniversary. It was March 4th, so. Yes. Thank you.
S1 (06:26):
That's really awesome. I love having you here. I'm telling
you this, this vide. If you're watching, you see it.
I hope that you can also hear it and feel it. Um,
but I absolutely love it. It's it's really great. And
tell me a little bit about what what those things
outside of orientation. So you mentioned Valentine's Day. Is there
anything else that is coming in or that you've made
an impact or a change before?
S2 (06:47):
Yeah. So um, I've also did like the folks that
are in my office. So Vincent Hinton, um, he is
the director of counseling services and student belonging, and then
Emily Saxon Phillips, she is the multicultural coordinator of student Belonging. Um,
so during week ten, the three of us tend to
get together and put together some type of activity. Um,
(07:09):
so we've done things from like, uh, bringing Kona ice
to campus. Um, we've done a like I'm blanking on
all of the activities that we've done. We did partner
with housing recently. We did like a stuff a critter activity.
We've done quite a few things. I know Emily, tomorrow
(07:29):
she's having, uh, the Holly color run. Okay. Um, so
they're supposed to do, like, a mile run around campus
and then come back. If you've ever seen a color
run where they, like, throw the. Yeah, dust paint at you.
They're supposed to do stuff like that. Um, we also
did an activity with athletics where we kind of tried
to convince students to come to the basketball game and
(07:51):
then gave away prizes. We gave away prizes to Bolero,
we gave away movie gift cards. Um, we gave away food,
gift cards, quite a few things. So we try to
do something every week ten and kind of prepare students
going into finals. Yeah. Um, so that they kind of
have a relaxation. Um, one of the main things that
(08:11):
I'm working on right now, I crochet, um, and so
I'm trying to bring some crochet activities to campus because
it is such a like, fun and relaxing activity to
do just so students can get together. Uh, the fun
name that I came up with was Common Threads.
S1 (08:28):
I love that.
S3 (08:30):
I love that.
S2 (08:32):
So, um, hoping to get that off the ground so
that students can get to learn something new, do something
with their hands while they're just chilling in their room
and relaxing.
S1 (08:42):
Step away from just the reading and the books and
the and the screens and just relax the brain and
work with, uh, right lobes. Exactly. I love that. Um,
this is so interesting because I think that it is
such a great job of creating opportunities for engagement and
growth and whatnot, but to bring things like that, I
(09:03):
remember once upon a time, um, student engagement, they had
done a spend the day at Six Flags Over Georgia. Oh,
it was such a cool experience. And we all just went.
And there was, of course, like a student pricing ticket
and whatnot. You had to get it ahead of time.
They had an option for either you drive yourself or
(09:25):
we have a bus or meet here at that this time.
And I like of course, I mean, probably 12 years later,
I'm still talking about it. It was really, really cool. Right?
But there's so much to do in Marietta, Georgia. We
are in the heart of we're just 15 minutes away
from downtown, ten minutes away from everything like uptown, downtown. Right. Everything. Um,
but also Marietta Heart has such amazing places to be.
(09:47):
So for people and students that may be coming to
orientation that haven't had a college experience, but also haven't
had a Marietta, Georgia experience. It is such a great
place to start learning these things and and connecting with people. Um,
I have a burning question. Yes, okay. I remember that
at orientation I had my ID done printed and the
(10:09):
whole the picture and whatnot. Do we still do this?
S2 (10:11):
We do. Take your picture or I shouldn't say we do. Uh,
car services takes your picture. Um, it is not a
hard copy, though. There's on your phone now, so students
have to. I think it's called trans Lock. Yeah. My
memory serves me correct. They have to download that and
follow all the steps. Um, but as a students register
(10:32):
for orientation, um, Car Services will send out emails to
all the incoming students so that they can go through
the process to get their IDs before they get to campus.
And then if you're already on campus, um, you just
their office or where they operate out of is in
the life you shop. So.
S1 (10:50):
Okay. That's awesome. Oh, thank you, thank you. I don't
know why I had that burning question for you. Do
they still print them?
S2 (10:57):
No. They they like we'll but it's it doesn't seem
like that's their goal.
S1 (11:03):
Yeah I see that I see that that's really awesome. Well,
thank you so much for your time. Thank you for
being here. Thank you for that love and that passion
that you bring to the students and the ease and peace,
because it can be when you get to college, it
can be a little bit threatening. You're excited.
S2 (11:18):
You're not wrong.
S1 (11:19):
But there's a lot of change going on at the
same time. And all of a sudden you're an adult.
S2 (11:23):
Exactly. And it's a big change. So yeah.
S1 (11:28):
I love that someone, um, I think posted around, I
saw I think I saw online, someone said the, uh,
worst hood you can be is adulthood.
S3 (11:38):
And I was like, you know, it could be great.
S1 (11:40):
But also if you don't get prepared.
S3 (11:42):
It can.
S2 (11:42):
Look, it can.
S3 (11:43):
Be really hard. Yes.
S2 (11:45):
So my mom, a couple days ago, I'll come back home.
S3 (11:48):
So.
S2 (11:49):
But no, I love.
S3 (11:50):
It, I love it.
S1 (11:50):
Well, thank you for being that transition and that bridge
and that ease for the students and bringing all these
beautiful activities with your team so that everybody feels at
home life, University. It's a great place. And I don't
say that because I've been here for a long time.
I say because I love it, um, but I hope
to keep you forever.
S3 (12:07):
Thank you.
S1 (12:08):
Well, thank you, Marcus, so much for your time. And
thank you guys for joining us on another episode of
Living Life Alive. You have a beautiful day.
S4 (12:14):
Bye bye.
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