The life of a Summer Welcome leader
July 9, 2008
Summer Welcome leader Jeff Luker performs in the Summer Welcome Revue show in Jesse Auditorium on Sunday.
Summer Welcome leader Jeff Luker announces evening activities for a Summer Welcome session on Sunday in Rollins dining hall. Luker, an MU junior, is one of 35 leaders tasked with familiarizing incoming freshmen with the university.
Summer Welcome leader Jeff Luker talks to incoming freshmen during a small group session on Sunday. Luker encouraged new students to ask questions about college life.
Summer Welcome leader Jeff Luker talks with fellow leaders Emily Rau and Meredith Rausch during the Student Activities Mart at Memorial Union on Sunday. Luker chose to spend the majority of his summer as a leader instead of interning at a Fox News station.
Summer Welcome leaders Matt Sheppard, Jeff Luker, Katherine Vicari, Domingo Pacheco and Blair Whitney perform a skit during Revue in Jesse Auditorium on Sunday. The skit parodied a scene from the MTV show TRL.
Summer Welcome leaders Jeff Luker and Libby Burkhardt walk into Gillett Residence Hall for lunch during a Summer Welcome session on Sunday. Leaders have spent the majority of their days training for their roles since May.
In a garden of freshmen, MU junior Jeff Luker has a green thumb. A native of Eden Prairie, Minn., Luker crossed many rivers to be where he is now — at the apex of his university social life. Luker is a Summer Welcome leader. Along with the other 35 leaders, Luker makes sure he wakes up every morning with his A-game ready.
“These students that are coming, this is their first time here, we have to treat it like that,” Luker said.
As parents swarm the compartments of Memorial Union, with glints of terror in their eyes, they follow their budding offspring from table to table, collecting necessary parts of their child’s next four years away from home.
“It’s a little overwhelming,” parent Barbara Miller said. “I just think it’s finally hitting home for a lot of us.”
The entire first day is dedicated to forming the incoming freshman’s new identity and Summer Welcome leaders are there to smooth the process.
“I think it’s most important that they understand that they’re adults now and people don’t need to be holding their hands anymore,” Luker said.
Leading as guest lecturer, journalism professor Cynthia Frisby introduced herself to an auditorium full of parents and students. During her lecture, Frisby illustrated the differences between high school and university expectations in the classroom while Summer Welcome leaders stood idly outside the Physics auditorium. Frisby said she wishes she had received the wealth of advice being given to these students entering their collegiate careers.
“I’ve recommended a few Summer Welcome leaders,” Frisby said. “These are students that come out of large lecture classes successfully. What they typically have is confidence and overall passion for whatever they do. Really, Summer Welcome leaders are ambassadors for the university. They weren’t always the top students in my class, but what I loved is how they deal with conflicts.”
Luker’s decision to become a Summer Welcome leader took some time. With rosy cheeks and messy brown, short hair, Luker was pushed into applying for this position by Alex Anderson, his former peer adviser and now graduate assistant for Summer Welcome, and Stephanie Heffernan, graduate assistant for the Wellness Center.
“Immediately he was one of those residents you could tell was super mature, charismatic and had a good head on his shoulders,” Anderson said. “I knew he wasn’t better than the group of friends he hung around with - but that he was capable of so much more. Stephanie and I really made an effort to talk to him about Summer Welcome - at first he was very hesitant to do it, because he had an internship.”
Last summer, Luker interned at the local Fox News station in Eden Prairie. As a sports broadcast journalist, internships like this are vital to his career track. When this last week of Summer Welcome fizzles out, Luker will return home to an abbreviated internship position at the same Fox News station.
“I think one of the things that are really interesting about the program are how much you develop as a leader and as a person,” Anderson said. “They’re finding what their strengths are. One of the stereotypes of being a Summer Welcome leader is that they are super outgoing or involved. We have quiet leaders, who aren’t necessarily followers. It’s also trying to find the diversity in majors. It creates a great synergy.”
Luker said that what he’ll miss most about this summer are the 35 other leaders he’s spent every waking moment with since May. At the start of their summer, a rigorous training schedule consumed the lives of the team. They would sit from about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., receiving 30-minute lectures from every department on campus. Afterward, practice for Revue, the team-produced skit, would ensue late into the night.
“Jeff is just a great guy all around,” senior Summer Welcome leader Nabely Castillo said. “We were running on two hours of sleep. If you’re having a really bad day, he’ll put a smile on your face and the good thing about him is that he doesn’t even have to try. I can definitely see him pursuing what he wants to do with sports broadcasting, either that or becoming a motivational speaker.”
One of Luker’s favorite questions to ask during the first couple of mini-meetings with incoming freshman is, “If you could pick a song to play every time you entered a room, what would it be?” This week, his answer was the theme song from the 1990s Nickelodeon cartoon “Doug.”
Like Doug, Luker does well in making his rounds within the ranks of Summer Welcome leaders and, like Doug, he can be a little awkward — the best way possible, of course.
“He will tell you the worst jokes,” junior Summer Welcome leader David Thiessen said. “Like stuff that comes off of candy wrappers or something.” Theissen formerly worked for The Maneater.
After escorting his groups through the Student Activities Mart, a summer wellness skit and a general run down of campus norms, Luker walks them over to Jesse Hall for some frozen custard and Revue.
“Jeff’s been great about giving out his e-mail and information out to us,” incoming freshman Kam Phillips said. “I’ve started to get excited about college and into the idea of studying on the quad, doing the fight song and alma mater before games. I think it would lots of fun being a Summer Welcome leader. I’m from Texas so it might be hard not going home for the summer, but I’d be able to get over it.”
More July 9, 2008 News Stories
- Blunt vetoes 'student curator bill' — ASUM board chairman said the organization wants the General Assembly to overturn the veto.
- Textbook transparency law takes effect in August — Due to a law Gov. Matt Blunt signed on June 25 to make textbook providers more transparent to consumers, significant ...
- Gas prices in Missouri lower than elsewhere — Ninth district candidates agree that ethanol is not a long-term solution.
- The life of a Summer Welcome leader — In a garden of freshmen, MU junior Jeff Luker has a green thumb. A native of Eden Prairie, Minn., Luker ...
- ¡Adelante! looks to the radio — ¡Adelante!, the bilingual newsmagazine published by the Columbia Missourian, will not be returning from its summer hiatus as usual, but ...
Most recent News Stories
- KCOU's future uncertain because of lack of funds — The station needs funds to replace its radio tower and move its offices.
- Campus organizations work to register students to vote — Since June, ASUM has registered more than 1,500 students.
- MU aims to increase faculty salaries — As of 2006, MU ranks 33 of 34 for faculty pay in the public division of the AAU.
- STRIPES age-requirement initiative waits on signatures — The organization is also celebrating its seventh anniversary.
- MU takes Cyber Security Awareness Month seriously — The Division of IT offers free software and security tips.