Martha Garcia kicked off her weekend at the Great Hall of the Memorial Union with an orientation program to acquaint her with minority life at Iowa State.

After stopping at a table manned by representatives from various minority student groups to collect a name tag, she headed to a chair in the third row, where she found a red folder.

As Garcia, freshman in mechanical engineering, looked around the room Friday, she saw a room filled with students and campus administrators, including President Gregory Geoffroy and Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill.

Everyone was there for the same reason – the Welcome Transition Orientation for new minority students at Iowa State.

Japannah Kellogg, event co-chair and minority liaison officer for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the goal of the program is “to positively affect retention and graduation of minority students at Iowa State.”

Retention is very important for the class with a record number of minority students, said Teresa Branch, assistant vice president for Student Affairs.

“The university is very proud and feels very good that we are moving in the direction of a more richly diverse student body,” she said. “Now that we’ve got them here, the goal is to retain them and make them feel a part of the family at ISU.”

Kellogg said the program is similar to New Student Days, with an emphasis on goal-setting.

“In the past, students of color didn’t do [New Student Days] for whatever reason,” he said. “The information here is similar, but the goal is to make initial contact with students and academics, and for them to have a face and person to connect to.”

Kellogg said the program does that by teaching students to set realistic goals for themselves.

Garcia said she was happy to set a few new goals for herself.

“I’d been planning to sit down and plan some,” she said, “but I couldn’t find the time.”

Garcia said she has four goals she wanted to accomplish this year. “I want to set a special time for studying, and find a comfortable place to do it,” she said.

Her other goals include maintaining a 3.5 GPA and “getting involved in multicultural groups.”

Another goal of the program is to introduce students to other students, Branch said.

“It helps them to begin to meet other students of color very early on a predominately white campus,” she said. “It’s very important for them to have people to network with. Developing a network of other students of color decreases the sense of isolation they are likely to feel on a campus this size.”

Planning for the orientation began in July, said Robert Lipsey, coordinator for residential minority programs and co-chair for the event.

Lipsey said this year’s orientation is similar to another that began in 1996 as a collaboration between the Department of Residence and Minority Student Affairs.

This year, he said, the Department of Admissions, George Washington Carver Scholars and Multicultural Learning Communities teamed up to hold the Multicultural Visions Program

The three programs offered separate, similar orientations in the past. They joined together to create a “centralized” event in order to reach more students.

More than 300 students attended the two-hour event, Lipsey said. The number is a huge increase from last year’s attendance of 75.

Lipsey said he hopes it will continue to grow in the future to reach the “large population” of students who have not been reached.

“We want to continue to get other departments and programs,” he said. “We hope this will become a university event like New Student Days.”

Garcia said the program was inspiring.

“There are so many people in the same boat here who are supportive,” she said. “It was lots of fun and a particularly good way to meet people.”