Safari welcomes freshmen to campus


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Samantha Madar | Photo Editor

More than 2,000 incoming freshmen participated in Central Michigan University’s Leadership Safari this year, the largest amount of participants to date.

Safari took place Aug. 22-26. It involves numerous team and community building exercises and is designed to help students become leaders, make community bonds and become acquainted with campus before the semester starts.

Dani Hiar celebrated her 15th year as Leadership Safari director. Safari has grown from 887 students in 2001 to 2,002 students in 2015 under her direction.

“It has grown because the people who are coming to the program are going back and telling their friends from high school and their communities what a great experience they had,” Hiar said.

Leadership Safari has also proven its worth to CMU through studies conducted by the Office of Institutional Research. Students who participate in Safari are 62 percent more likely to attend CMU for a second year than students who did not. The grade point average of students who attended Safari in 2013 was 2.82 compared to 2.69 for those students who did not.

Steven Keene, Plymouth sophomore, was a participant in Safari last year as a freshman, and was the guide of Team Fieldmouse this year. Keene stressed the importance of living a non-judgmental lifestyle to his participants.

“They came in this week as really awkward freshman. They still had that high school mindset like they were going to be judged here if they wore a certain clothing item and they lived by labels,” Keene said. “We wanted to make it clear that this is a campus that doesn’t put a label on any certain person because of the way they act or because of their sexuality, race or religion.”

Opening up was a big challenge for member of Team Fieldmouse Dontae Sumpter.

“I was kind of the quiet kid in high school,” said the Mount Clemens freshman. “Safari has really helped me branch out. I was nervous about meeting a group of strangers. This whole week has helped me make great friends because I was worried about next week when everyone else moves in and it’s like you are a little fish in a big pond.”

Being a guide someday is a goal of Mylia Patwin, a Westland freshman and member of Team Field mouse.

“The leadership about this is just guiding somebody and helping anyone who needs help,” Patwin said. “I was happy I did this. If I had moved in during general move-in day, I would have been very confused and not wanted to talk to anybody. This really opens up any new person that comes into this school.”

The presentation by "The Dating Doctor," David Coleman, was Hannah Maze’s favorite part of Leadership Safari. Coleman is known for his speeches about dating and relationships that he gives at colleges.

“We did a bunch of different partner activities and he promised that we would meet 100 new people all within the hour, and I’m pretty sure we met that goal,” said the Shelby Township freshman. “I don’t remember everyone’s name, but I definitely saw a lot of new faces there.”

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