In addition, students experienced a unique outdoor component. Now in its second year, the program features a variety of exploratory sessions that look at the Sweet Briar environment from the perspectives of different academic disciplines. Students choose from such programs as a scavenger hunt using GPS navigation equipment, digging up the campus's archaeological past, art, horseback riding, and more. Students gathered on the athletic fields behind Babcock Auditorium at 8 a.m. before separating into groups throughout the campus. The Sweet Briar College campus covers 3,300 acres and includes woodlands, nature sanctuaries, farmland, lakes, a mountain outing cabin, the Rogers Riding Center, recreational facilities, and trails for hikers, bicycles and horses.
Orientation is the first step in a new student's academic career.
It is designed to familiarize students with the campus, its personnel, services and resources, while allowing students to have fun and develop connections with each other, foster collaboration and develop leadership skills. An Orientation Group Leader and a faculty member or administrator co-leads the individual programs. The entire class meets in the center dell for an introduction and beginning activity. From the dell, each group walks to some of the most beautiful areas of Sweet Briar's land for group activities. The activities are not physical in nature, but rather cooperative.