Get Involved!

The Student Involvement Fair each year prior to the beginning of classes gives incoming students a warm Ohio State welcome—in typical Big Ohio State Style. There is something for everyone and lots of excitement to go around. No one ever leaves thinking that maybe they came to the wrong place!

The Oval is jammed with booths and tables set up by organizations offering information, resources, freebies, and friendship to our new students. Throughout the Oval, a veritable circus of food, music and entertainment catches the eyes, ears and noses of throngs of students eagerly checking out their new home.

The College of Arts and Sciences—the academic heart of Ohio State—rightfully plays a central part in this exuberant day of discovery. ASC teaches the foundational courses for nearly every Ohio State undergraduate and offers 80 major programs to approximately 20,000 students enrolled in arts and sciences.

In the midst of the frenzy, engagement began. Conversations were started, information exchanged, and human faces put on Ohio State’s largest college—one of the most important human faces—ASC Executive Dean David C. Manderscheid, who came by to meet his new students and hand out tote bags.

The ASC booth was a very popular Oval destination with one-stop shopping: buttons, bags, arts and sciences event field guides; a chance to participate and score prizes in Gold Rush, ASC’s traditional scavenger hunt; and a full cadre of friendly, helpful ASC staff, faculty and students to field questions of all kinds.

The bright-colored buttons and the sturdy bags hooked them in. Students cheerfully lined up to get to the buttons representing the top 20 majors at Ohio State; then lingered to figure out the combination of different icons that made up their major.

It soon became a game that engaged everyone—ASC volunteers AND the students. “Who knew this would become a game,” one of the faculty volunteers said.

While they waited, students happily reached for the ASC tote bags designed with icons representing the diversity of arts and sciences programs. Tote bags went fast and buttons quickly disappeared. “All the brains (buttons) are gone!” someone cried, while everyone, volunteers and students, scrambled through the buttons looking for “brain-substitutes.”