Orientation weekends aren’t just limited to Open House. From April 9-10, prospective students visited campus to explore Cal Poly’s diversity through PolyCultural Weekend (PCW).
During that weekend, the MultiCultural Center set up activities around campus to showcase Cal Poly’s broad spectrum of cultural clubs and organizations for prospective students.
Due to the lack of diversity at Cal Poly, students with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds have concerns about attending Cal Poly, biological sciences senior and PCW coordinator Maria Dionicio said.
“By having on-campus student cultural organizations be the leading force for PCW, these clubs help decrease any concerns that prospective student might have pertaining to diversity on campus,” Dionicio said.
These three days serve as an orientation program designed to help conditionally accepted students decide if Cal Poly is right for them. This year marked the highest student turnout as well as the most organization involvement, with 27 clubs participating in the weekend’s activities.
The goal is to make prospective students feel like they have a community at Cal Poly, recreation, parks and tourism administration senior and PCW coordinator Adrian Morales said.
“PCW’s main goals are to build a platform for students to feel like they can succeed if they choose to come to Cal Poly,” Morales said.
After registering online, students chose events to attend throughout this annual celebration.
These events ranged from parent panels and workshops to performances from different Cal Poly organizations and even the Plaza Palooza, held in the Julian A. McPhee University Union Plaza. Each event displayed a different aspect of Cal Poly’s cultural life, from the Black Student Union to the Queer Student Union.
“I think my favorite part of the weekend was the club breakout because I got to meet a lot of new people, play games and learn more about the awesome clubs and programs I can join next year,” incoming business administration freshman Stefan Kornarens said.
Campus tours and a tour of Downtown San Luis Obispo were also included in the itinerary.
Tours of the different residence halls were offered Saturday. Students stayed in the residence halls over the weekend with an assigned host to present them with a sneak peek of the full college experience.
Parents were allowed to come to introductory events Friday and lunch Sunday. Otherwise, PolyCultural Weekend was all for the students.