August 4, 2025

by Lauren Ferguson

When a young person begins college, it’s not just an adjustment for the student, but for their family as well.

That is why while incoming Ramapo College of New Jersey students are participating in new student orientations, the college hosts comprehensive orientations for parents and families.

During the full-day sessions on Ramapo’s picturesque Mahwah campus, held in the summer before students start classes, family members are briefed on everything from encouraging their students to get involved on campus to navigating financial aid.

“Recognizing that it can be an overwhelming time for students and families alike, we focus on partnering with parents to support their students’ success and well-being,” said Meghan Gregory, Ramapo’s assistant director of new student experience.

“By offering a comprehensive orientation experience we make sure that the students and the families are both receiving important information and know the resources available to them to assist them throughout their entire time at Ramapo College,” she said.

The day starts with a breakfast and resource fair, where students and parents learn about clubs and organizations, offices to go to for support and programs available to students.

Then, when students break away for their own orientations, parents get briefed on all things Ramapo. Parents are offered sessions on academic success strategies, first generation student success, navigating the financial landscape, parents as partners in student well-being, parents as partners in student success, the residential experience and the commuter experience, among other areas.

During one July session, Joseph Connell, assistant vice president of student success, told a room full of parents and family that he is a big believer in the idea that the things parents teach their students to do for themselves will make them successful people.

“We are encouraging your students to be the ones leading the process. And so the advice that we give you is how to partner with us to make sure your students have that guide on the side to keep making the right choices to ensure their success and their future development” he said.

An incoming student and her family member pose before their respective orientations begin.

At the same session, Peter Rice, senior director of constituent relations, told family members that because of Ramapo’s small class sizes, their students will receive individual attention in the classroom. And with access to nearby internships in New York City and Bergen County, they will build their resumes through hands-on experiential learning. Rice also provided tips on how to be supportive of their students as they transition to college life.

“Tell them to get involved and to get out and to join activities and become part of the campus,” Rice said. “Whether it’s something that they were deeply involved in in high school, or whether it is something that they have never been involved in at all, encourage them to continue with what they love or to try something new, but to get deeply involved.”

Parents Sergio and Jaquelyn Aponte, or Wayne, NJ, who attended an orientation together, said their daughter Karina Aponte ‘29 is already excited to be a member of the Ramapo College Dance Team.

“She made the dance team,” Sergio said of his daughter, a graduate of Passaic County Technical Institute (PCTI),  who will be majoring in Neuroscience.

Karina’s mother, Jaqueline, said her daughter liked the feel of a small campus and the ability to get to know her professors. “She likes the smaller community, the one on one attention,” she said.

Both parents said the orientation had been useful. “It’s very helpful, especially for the resources that are on campus,” Sergio said.

Another parent, Gwendolyn Shields, of Paterson, NJ, said the orientation provided her with a lot of information about important subjects such as financial aid, and ways students can communicate with staff and manage their schedules.

Shields is excited for her daughter, Sanaa Shields ‘29, to begin the nursing program at Ramapo. Sanaa has “known from like the third grade that she wanted to be a nurse,” she said. Gwendolyn said Sanaa chose to study nursing at Ramapo, because “she said it felt like family.”

Rice, Ramapo’s senior director of constituent relations, knows the connections students make at Ramapo will serve as long-lasting supports.

“When your student gets here in the fall, they are going to meet teachers and mentors who are going to be their partners for life, people that they are going to be able to rely on not only the next four years, but throughout the whole rest of their life,” Rice told family members.