Moorpark College welcomed first-year students on campus Monday for one of its first in-person events since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic for New Student Welcome Day.

Incoming students were invited to a brief orientation over Zoom, followed by an on-ground major-specific general campus tour and outdoor lunch. Moorpark College’s Student Activities Specialist Kristen Robinson shared her excitement for the incoming students.

“I think there were some students who wanted to take advantage of getting to experience the campus for the first time; they definitely missed out on this last year,” said Robinson. “I think it was probably a different experience than what they expected, but I hope that some of them are still walking away feeling like they know the campus that they’re going to be spending, you know, calling home for the next couple years.”

Moorpark College’s Director of International and Outreach Claudia Wilroy, helped organized the event for new students and spoke about the reasoning for hosting the event.

“The main purpose was to have the students back on campus and to also have them tour the campus and find out about the campus so that we could answer questions that they may have,” explained Wilroy. “We’ve talked to them about all the departments, we’ve toured by areas of interest and the students that are undecided have a chance to decide where they want to go into what they want to do.”

Roughly 100 students were split into smaller groups led by student-volunteers to tour key buildings and facilities on the formerly barren campus. After receiving goodie bags filled with Moorpark styled gear, the new students were able to ask questions and find where their soon-to-be-held classes are located.

Giovani Long, an incoming freshman from Westlake High School, had not had the chance to see the campus beforehand due to the pandemic and explained why he attended New Student Welcome Day.

“[I came out today] really just to get the layout of the campus,” said Long. “You know, especially over the last couple years, a lot of people have just been doing everything online. So, it’s really good, especially as we slowly start to come back to going in person, you know, to actually know what, where everything is and what kind of resources are available to the students.”

The event was one of the first large-scale events held at the college since the campus shut down in Spring 2020. Many of the now-sophomore student-volunteers had not previously seen the campus themselves and were unable to have a New Student Welcome Day.

Student-volunteer with Raider Central Jesus Orozco explained why he chose to volunteer and help the incoming students.

“I decided to volunteer today because when I first started here at Moorpark, I started during the pandemic and I wasn’t able to get a tour,” explained Orozco. “…Because I didn’t get that I wanted other people [to be able] to get that experience.”

Other volunteers like 2021 graduate Cristopher Sixto Marquez started at Moorpark before the pandemic and came back to get a chance to see the campus again. He reminisced on student life pre-pandemic.

“It was definitely was nice to see the other people’s faces, you know, to get a glimpse of actual people on campus like how it used to be,” said Marquez. “So it wasn’t exactly how it used to be before, but it was still nice.”

After the campus tours, lunch was provided for incoming students and volunteers in the newly constructed Solar Village. Moorpark classes begin August 16 with a hybrid of online and in-person classes.