AUBG Welcomes 269 New Students on Campus
Which student club should I join? Is it too hard to pass this course? Can I do two majors and a minor?
These were just some of the questions you would hear on a walk around the AUBG campus in the past few days. Orientation Week is full of the energy and excitement of students who step in the classrooms for the first time.
On Aug. 30 AUBG welcomed its 30th class with 244 first-year students and 25 exchange students. As the semester starts in a hybrid mode, some of the students will be studying on-ground, while others will remain online.
During the all-campus picnic, President David Evans shared his enthusiasm about the new academic year. He said that in spring 2020, a survey asked students about the three words they associate most with AUBG. The words were community, diversity and opportunity. “Community is the number one word by a long way,” Evans said. “This last year has shown that even if you are at the four corners of the world this is still a great community.” He also stressed on the importance of keeping the health and safety measures on campus. “Let us all please care for each other.”
This fall there are representatives of 25 countries at AUBG. With two new flags that are now part of the university collection -- those of Tunisia and Thailand -- AUBG now counts over 80 countries that have contributed to the diversity of the community in the past 30 years.
From a professional ballet dancer to a podcast host, and a student who won a price for working on a sensor technology for real-time reading of pollution and potable water indicators, the class of 2025 is now part of the entrepreneurial AUBG community.
The students soon learned that Orientation Week is not only about the library trainings and the selection of courses. Pizza and karaoke night with songs from all over the world. Traditional blanket party to celebrate the last summer nights on the lawn. Talent show that featured singing, dancing, laughing and balancing a chair on a chin. All that concluded with a community service project for cleaning the local park.