Students enthusiastic about the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus are encouraged to apply to be a Week of Welcome (WOW) leader by March 1.
Erin O’Keefe, a program coordinator at UConn Student Activities, said previous WOW leaders spoke highly of the opportunities the job opened for them.
“We have WOW leaders employed across the UConn campus, and the experience they gain is a great addition to any resume,” O’Keefe said. “They were able to use their WOW experiences as talking points in job interviews after commencement.”
While applicants of all sorts of personality types are considered, O’Keefe said students who are fond of the Storrs campus have higher chances to be hired.
“I look for students who truly love the UConn campus. Someone who walks in the room knowing that they are about to make a positive impact on our incoming class of first year students,” O’Keefe said. “[T]hat doesn’t always mean that each student needs to be the most outgoing or loud.”
WOW leader applicants are facing more competition than previous years after an increase in student participation, according to O’Keefe.
One of O’Keefe’s favorite parts of coordinating the program was seeing how many siblings and family members become part of WOW. She mentioned how two captains of the upcoming Fall 2026 team are siblings of former captains.
WOW captains assist in the WOW leader hiring, recruiting and interview process. Captains also work events beyond WOW like Spring Weekend and Mega Weekend, according to O’Keefe.
Fourth-semester psychology major Giovanni Lavado, a WOW captain for 2026, said when he was a leader last year, one of the captains inspired him. After students lost interest in an activity, the captain took it upon herself to be innovative and re-engage students.
“One of the WOW captains was able to think outside the box and she combined… three groups together and we had this big ice breaker game,” Lavado said, describing how the decision helped more people get to know each other. “That moment represented what it meant to be a WOW captain.”
One benefit of being a part of WOW that both O’Keefe and Lavado mentioned was feeling more familiar on campus.
“You get to meet a lot more people, they have big events there,” Lavado said, pointing out one of the activities where students watched a movie by a bonfire. “If you’re an introvert, it’s good for coming out of your shell and connecting with people at the school.”
As UConn experiences enrollment increases, Student Activities Associate Director Jess Gerum said she expects events to get bigger, which might make accommodating everyone difficult.
“Finding space on our campus is a consistent challenge between construction and the increased number of students attending WOW,” Gerum said.
One way WOW works around this challenge is by holding events outdoors to accommodate large numbers of students, Gerum said, but weather remains an unpredictable variable for outdoor venues.