Freshman Traditions
“Don’t Mess with Texas”
| Elizabeth Hobson Fort Worth, TX Fall 2018 |
Informant Data:
Elizabeth Hobson was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 10, 2000. She has lived in Charlotte for all of her life with her parents and little brother, William. She attended Charlotte Country Day School for elementary, middle and high school. And she is currently studying communications at the Texas Christian University. Outside of school, Elizabeth enjoys grabbing meals with her friends and boyfriend. On the weekends she enjoys going to bars with college friends. Her favorite past time is driving around on a nice sunny day while listening to music.
Contextual Data:
Cultural Context:
Texas Christian University, TCU, is a private Christian based university in Fort Worth Texas. TCU was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark. Their school mascot is the horned frog. There are currently has 8,892 undergraduates enrolled.
Social Context:
There are certain criteria that the freshman experience entire year. Freshman usually undergo typical traditions like freshman orientation. TCU has special traditions and rites of passages to welcome the freshman into the community in addition to the social and athletic events. They want their freshmen to feel comfortable on campus and join the community.
Item:
Before school starts, TCU offers an extension of orientation called “Frog Camp” in the summer. Here, students are able to meet lots of new people before starting, which helps with the transition in the fall. Orientation, Frog Camp, and sorority recruitment helped Elizabeth feel more at home at TCU. Joining a sorority early in the fall was when she felt incorporated to the school. This gave her a group of people that she nows considers family. One rite of passage is a day called “Frogs First”. Here students complete a day of activities before school starts. Some big traditions are the tailgates before football games. The students all come together and support their team giving everyone a sense of camaraderie. Some of the bigger games of the year are against SMU and University of Texas.
Transcript:
“It was hard to be away from home but all of the people I met from sorority recruitment, orientation, and Frog Camp made me feel at home at TCU.”
Collector’s Comments:
Greek life was an important part of Elizabeth’s transition into college. This gave her a good set of friends early on into then year. There are not many similarities between the first year at Dartmouth and TCU. Freshmen at Dartmouth are not allowed to participate in Greek life until their sophomore year. The “Frog Camp” at the beginning of the year reminded me of freshmen trips. The obvious difference is “Frog Camp” does not involve camping in the woods, but both are an opportunity for freshmen to get to know each other without upperclassmen around.
| Caroline K. Jones 19
Dartmouth College |