What I learned as a Leader at NYU’s Welcome Week

At NYU, students aspire to intern at big name firms, such as E&Y, Goldman Sachs, and any federal government office in Washington, DC. While I have not yet had the chance to intern at any of these big names, I have picked up the same important skills that would be acquired at these big name internships, such as being proactive and crisis management.

I learned these while working at a Leader at NYU’s Welcome Week. This might sound mundane, with about 300 leaders working every year, but it has been one of my most valuable experiences thus far, both at work and life in general.

Welcome Week is NYU’s term for orientation, when all the first-year students move in, meet others, and learn more about the opportunities in their respective colleges. There are also a host of all-university events, from a hypnotist show to bingo with a drag queen to a themed dance at the end of the week.

Throwback theme at Welcome Week 2014.

I got a lot better at being proactive instead of reactive

Being proactive is about anticipating and working towards preventing problems, instead of waiting until something happens and you have to enter problem-solving mode. For example, if I was working in a large area, such as line control of an entire block, and I had several leaders in my area, but the area across the street only had one or two (the street blocks around the NYU buildings are quite long), a proactive solution I used was to send someone over to the under-served area to even out leader coverage. I used this strategy a few times the second time I worked orientation in 2015; this thought never occurred to me when I was a new leader in 2014.

Another time this occurred was with elevator management. In 2014, I (and many others) had a very reactionary strategy to loading elevators at events. When one got stuck, we handled it on the spot. But we never thought of limiting the number of students per elevator, rather than squeezing in as many as possible. That proactive change occurred in 2015.

When problems do occur, resolution is the first priority

Waiting for rescue at Welcome Week 2014.

The elevator management strategy change was a result of the time when I got stuck in an elevator at Welcome Week 2014. When problems do occur, panicking is easy, and looking to others to blame is even easier. At best, these approaches do nothing toward actually solving the issue. At worse, they hinder the process of reaching a solution. While I have always been a problem solver, I too have fallen into the blame game, but since the Welcome Week experiences, almost always do I immediately use problem solving mode.

Although getting out of the elevator itself was a matter of waiting for a mechanic, me and the other leader there could help ease the situation. It was hot and sweaty, and the students standing behind us were tense. The elevator was stuffed with about twenty students, not including me and my fellow leader.

Both of us leaders kept things calm with an icebreaker and the mass conversation that ensued, and the selfie that follows above shows the end result of our efforts. Though it was still packed, the students behind us ended up calm until the mechanic arrived.

Both of these important skills were developed from a relatively standard university position.