Orientation Week 2025

By Rachel Boutet

The halls of 124 Edward St. are bustling – Orientation Week (O-Week) 2025 has officially begun.

The incoming DDS students will enjoy a week’s worth of activities in “The DDS Cinematic Universe”. First-year students will be split into groups with movie-themed names, including The Crownfather, Happy Drillmore, The Molar Express and Plaque Panther, to name a few.

2T8 students Arnold Chau, Sogol Noormandi and Dharmik Parekh are this year’s O-Week coordinators.

“I chose to become an O-Week coordinator because orientation marks the beginning of an exciting and challenging journey through dental school,” says Chau. “To me, it’s a milestone worth celebrating – a chance to honour the years of hard work it took to get here, while also enjoying one last big moment of fun before the next four years of dedication begin. My goal is to make this week as memorable and meaningful as possible for the incoming class.”

Noormandi echoes these sentiments, saying, “O-Week was a great way to start off my first year and meet life-long friends and planning a week that is just as positive and impactful on the incoming class felt like it would be a rewarding experience.”

All three coordinators agree that their own orientation week allowed them the opportunity to make lasting friendships as they headed into the academic year.

“O-Week made a big impact on me, and it was something I wanted to experience again, but from a different perspective – I want the first years to have the same or even better experience than I did!” says Parekh.

While many of the week’s events follow tradition – including the ROM, CN Tower dinner, boat cruise, Toronto Island beach day and Amazing Race – this year has some new elements as well. First-year students will participate in a game of “Assassins” where each student is assigned a ‘target’ and must eliminate them – a fun way for the class to get to know everyone. The coordinators also wanted to start a new tradition with the introduction of a class scrapbook.

“We want to start a tradition where each class has their own scrapbook, that can be filled with pictures, small artifacts, letters to their future selves – something that we started in 2T8 last year,” says Chau.

The week will also include the White Coat Ceremony, combining fun and academics as these 96 students officially enter the Faculty as future dentists.

The student services office, the office of student life and the alumni office supported financial assistance and planning for O-Week.

Photo: O-Week 2025 coordinators