With the fall semester just two months away, the Institute’s campus is bustling with energy in preparation for the arrival of its newest batch of freshmen, who will be participating in the iGniTe first year summer launch program.
The iGniTe program is a summer session of classes and experiences offered to incoming freshmen. The program allows students the opportunity to get adjusted to college life in a lower risk environment, including the chance to take classes for credit as well as bond with other students. The benefits of participating in iGniTe are evident.
Students have a chance to acclimate themselves to the Institute’s campus, take core curriculum classes, and interact with other freshmen through program-sponsored activities. The program consists of seven tracks that students can select from. The tracks include Analyzing Atlanta, Architecture and Design, GT-F1RST, Innovation, Leadership, Pre-Health, Sustainable Communities, and Undergraduate Research. This year, iGniTe students will start moving in on June 18th and begin classes on June 22nd. Students will move out August 5th, only a week before they will be moving back in for the start of the Fall semester.
In honor of this year’s incoming iGniTe class, iGniTe alumni Havisha Murukuntla, a rising second year IE major, and Aryaman Mukherji, rising second year IE major, gave some insight into their experiences as summer freshmen during the Summer 2021 semester. When asked why she participated in the iGnite program, Murukuntla said, “I chose to do the program to prepare myself for the classes at Georgia Tech and to get a head start, while also being able to make new friends.” iGniTe gives students the opportunity to get a taste of college classes and adjust to college life while taking on a smaller workload, all under the facilitation of program directors trained to help the newly minted students.
“I wanted to start college a little bit early and get some credits out of the way. Taking iGniTe allowed me to take shorter versions of health and English, which cleared up room in my schedule for the fall and spring,” said Mukherji. He further stated, “I learned how to adjust my work ethic from high school to college, so that I could be better prepared for the type of work I was expected to do. I made a lot of great memories going to social events and meeting other new students, many of whom I remain close friends with.” Similarly, Murukuntla said, “ I think I gained insight for the most part – how the classes work, how professors are. There’s a mandatory GT 1000 class that helped with my career preparedness.”
Each iGniTe student is required to take GT 1000, a 1 credit hour first year seminar class designed to help students adjust to the transition of college and interact with other freshmen, all while learning how to further their education and career. When asked how the program helped ease his transition into the Institute, Mukherji said, “I was able to explore GT’s campus early when it wasn’t as crowded. I became familiar with important areas such as the CULC and CRC and was able to guide my friends when they arrived in the Fall.”
One of the main emphases put on the iGniTe program is helping students create relationships with other incoming students through different activities. From attending Atlanta United games together to completing the Leadership Ropes Course, students had many opportunities to create friendships and make lasting memories alongside other freshmen. One of last year’s fan-favorite activities was the battle of the quad event, where students living in Glenn and Towers faced off against each other through various sports and games. Students played games such as soccer and trivia in hopes of claiming victory. As the new group of iGniTe freshmen prepare to take on the Institute’s campus, Mukherji leaves them with this advice: “My advice would be to take your classes seriously, but not stress too much about them, because ignite is just the first step of your journey as a tech student. While it’s guaranteed that you might make some mistakes, learning from them is just as important.”
For more information about the iGniTe program, visit https:// summer.gatech.edu/ignite/ .