 |
| Sophomore defensive specialist, Natalie Berrafato (photo credit: Roger Coda) |
Natalie strongly believes that for our incoming freshman she should be very welcomed right away no matter what. When Natalie came in for the first time as a freshman she was very nervous and scared because everyone else knew each other pretty well, but as soon as she stepped into Dods (Gymnasium) she felt like she wasn’t even away at college. Everyone welcomed her and made it feel like home after she just left her parents. Natalie is going to make them feel welcomed even more and to make sure that she doesn’t feel left out considering she is the only freshman coming in.
Natalie also thinks that she will make her first year a lot better because she will tell her right away that if they have time-management problems with school to make a weekly schedule of everything you need to do. Being a student athlete for the first month was really tough for Natalie because she didn’t know how to handle it all at once. So the best advice I have for her is to really focus and manage your time wisely and get your school work done ahead of time instead of procrastinating.
Also, Natalie believes that showing her around campus and getting her involved more in clubs than I did will help her feel more comfortable with not only the school but for herself. Another big thing that Natalie will tell the incoming freshman is that during the off-season to still be focused with school and not slack off because the team has more time on their hands with not being gone every weekend and practicing every day. It results in not getting stuff done when it should be when you can higher your GPA, especially if you had a hard time in the first semester.