Archives: Ryan Alvarez

CBU’s missionaries in residence live in a house on the edge of campus. For the time they are here, they’re working to help students from missionary families adjust and feel welcomed at CBU. Last Friday they hosted the first MK (missionary kid) barbecue event of the year, and I attended. That’s one thing you don’t know about me–I am also a missionary kid.

Just a quick explanation: I grew up in Lima, Peru, where my parents still work training and sending Latino missionaries to countries all around the world. When I was 15, my oldest brother started college at Azusa Pacific University, which resulted in my family moving to California for at least his first year. Since my other brother and I were finishing high school soon, my parents decided to keep us here until we graduated and started university as well. Needless to say, the culture shock was, well, shocking. I don’t think there is a more opposite comparison to Lima as south Orange County. It was my difficult experience in high school, however, that pushes me to be active in the MK group here at CBU.

I’ve lived in California long enough now to understand the culture and feel comfortable, but I know the new students who arrived this year will experience the same confusion I did four years ago. That’s why I walked over to the missionary’s house last week with my other MK friend, Scott Teichert, to meet some new faces. I’d been to one last year, but there wasn’t much of a turnout.

This year did not disappoint. The living room was packed with MKs from Turkey, England, South East Asia, Kenya, and more places than I can remember. There must have been at least 20 of us there, a much larger group than before. Although we all came from different cultures, we all knew how the other felt living in the U.S. for the first time. There is this mutual understanding that MKs have for each other that really brings us together. It’s hard to explain, but it’s there. As a FOCUS leader, I already met some of the MK freshmen and can’t wait to be involved with this group through the year. CBU really does welcome and help international students, which is support I wish I had when we first moved to the U.S. Now I can be a part of that, too.

CBU’s New Student Orientation is like no other. The university not only organizes a series of exciting events and worshipful sessions, but also demonstrates the unity between CBU staff and students. The time put in by all of the departments and student leaders sends a message that CBU truly cares about its students. I feel privileged to say that I contributed to that.

It was only a year ago when I was one of those nervous freshmen moving into Smith Hall carrying my guitar in one hand and keeping my nervous anticipation to myself. I remember meeting my hall mates and countless others while I was directed between different informational sessions, group games and worship services. Thinking back, I really didn’t know what was going on most of the time. I just followed the crowds of unfamiliar faces and let the friendly CBU upperclassmen show me the ropes.

This year, however, I was the friendly FOCUS Leader answering campus questions and hi-fiving every freshmen that passed by. Something I learned quickly this year was that my role as student leader greatly contrasted my role from last year. There is so much planning that goes on before the event, and during the weekend it was our job to keep it running smoothly.

The FOCUS team definitely stayed busy, but we loved being there every second. Right from the beginning on Thursday morning I was there at the first tables welcoming new students and handing them their ID cards and orientation name tags. It was exciting to know that I was a part of their first impression of CBU. That energy pushed me through the rest of the day which varied from moving students into Tower Hall and Simmons to handing out Lancer shirts at check-in. True, that did involve several trips carrying boxes of clothes and hangers up and down staircases, but I was feeling just as excited, if not more so, than the students I was helping. Just knowing how much fun they would have this weekend was enough to make me forget that I was even working. I can’t really call it work if I’m enjoying every minute of it. Then I met the students in my FOCUS group that night, and it was just amazing to talk with them and hear about their lives and impressions of CBU. From there, the weekend passed by quickly with fun events like Clash N Bowl and Price is Right. I honestly had more fun being a leader during all of these events than I did experiencing them last year.

That joy we felt while helping all of the new students really made the weekend special for us all. I definitely had no idea that I could have so much fun directing lost parents to info sessions or seeing freshmen reactions to the ADC. I can’t wait until next year to do it all again.