Orientation 2025
Author: Katelyn Wissinger | Student, Living Education – Charlotte, 2025-26
On August 10th, the newest class of Living Education Charlotte students embarked on a trip to the refreshing North Carolina mountains. As a returning student leader, this experience brought up fond memories of my orientation trip from last year. It gave me the opportunity to create new memories with the incoming students.
On Sunday, the faculty picked us up from the dorms in Charlotte, and we traveled to Blowing Rock, NC. We were met with pleasant temperatures and inconsistent precipitation.
Orientation officially kicked off on Monday as the students eagerly listened to lectures from Mr. McNair, Mr. Tlumak, Mr. Frank, Mr. Ruddlesden, and Ms. Ellie McNair. The faculty aimed to encourage us to consider the great opportunity that Living Education Charlotte is and to aid us with advice on how to succeed. We concluded the first day of orientation with a hearty meal of baked ziti for nourishment. That evening, much glee was had as some of us engaged in the ultimate game of wits, otherwise known as UNO.
On Tuesday, the vans were packed up again, and we drove off to Elizabethton, Tennessee, for the capstone to the first Living Education adventure of the year. We arrived at Wahoo’s Whitewater Rafting Adventure, some of us excited and others a little trepidatious at what was to come. As the rafts surged and lurched through the rapids of the river, much glee was gained from splashing the ice-cold water at each other. Exclamations of shock and surprise rang out as opportunities were taken to leap into the bone-chilling water at various moments when the rapids were calmer.
The 2025 orientation trip proved to be both educational and exciting as we learned more about others and ourselves. If this trip was a foreshadowing of things to come, I can’t wait!
