This page is your one-stop (coffee) shop to everything you need to know about EspressO-Week. Read about your coordinators, theme, what to expect for move-in, and the people you'll be getting to know very closely during your first week at Rice!
O-Week is a week-long welcome to everything Rice University and Duncan College. We’ve planned a bunch of events that will help you smoothly transition to Rice! O-Week is meant to give you an academic and social foundation for not only your first year but also the rest of your time in college. Throughout the various activities during O-Week, you will experience all of the culture and resources Rice University and Duncan College have to offer.
At the beginning of the week, you’ll get to know your wonderful O-Week advisors and all the rest of the New Students in your O-Week group. You’ll also get introduced to Duncan’s stellar Adult Team (Dunc-Squad) as well as other Duncan-affiliated professors and faculty. These are all opportunities for you to form a foundation of connections, resources, and (most importantly) lasting friendships that you can build upon as you transition into Rice and Duncan.
Throughout the week, you’ll meet not only other New Students and Advisors within other O-Week groups, but also students across campus as well as faculty and staff who will be resources available to you for your entire career at Rice. About half the week is dedicated to helping you plan your academics. You will learn directly from an expert team of Peer Academic Advisors, garner the advice of professors around campus, and be able to grow and support your own academic plans through the perspectives of many different Rice students. The remainder of the week is meant to immerse you in the unique cultures and traditions that Duncan and Rice have built over the years.
By the end of the week, you will not only be familiar with the plethora of resources Rice and Duncan have to offer, but also the values upon which these resources are based. One of Duncan’s mottos is “Somos Equipo, Somos Familia” (SESF), which means “We are a team, we are a family.” We live together, learn together, laugh together, and most of all support each other unconditionally in our efforts both as students and as people. It has been almost thirteen years since Duncan was founded, and while there are a lot of fun traditions and events that have already been built, you, as a new Duncaroo, will be able to create new ones during your time here at Rice!
We know that this might sound like a lot to introduce to you in one week, but we want to emphasize that each of the events will help you understand a different aspect of Rice, whether it is an energetic rally or an academic planning session. In the end, our goal is for you to leave your first experience at Rice excited, confident, and supported. <3
