{"id":10482,"date":"2026-08-19T19:50:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=10482"},"modified":"2026-08-19T19:50:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:50:59","slug":"new-students-begin-their-odyssey-at-troy-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/08\/19\/new-students-begin-their-odyssey-at-troy-university\/","title":{"rendered":"New students begin their Odyssey at Troy University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 Freshmen\u00a0at Troy are\u00a0learning what\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0like to be a Trojan\u00a0following\u00a0an introductory pep rally\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0held every year\u00a0the day before classes begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culture plays a major part in the identity of a university, and sometimes it may be difficult for new students to align with that identity. Tuesday\u2019s Odyssey Convocation attempted to open the door for those students by highlighting a defining element of Troy\u2019s culture: tradition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think tradition\u00a0is something that students just grasp ahold of, in today\u2019s time, they love that,” said Associate Dean of Student Services, Dr. Korrie Lynn Williamson. “Talking to students from years ago or thinking in future\u00a0terms,\u00a0our students are going to be able\u00a0to\u00a0say\u00a0\u2018Oh I\u00a0was able to do\u00a0that,\u00a0that was so fun.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Or\u00a0maybe\u00a0their\u00a0children or grandchildren will have the same experience.\u00a0I think that\u00a0is just what allows Troy to be different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAMPUS NEWS: Troy University\u2019s campus comes to life as students begin new semester<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was held by Troy University\u2019s Welcome Week committee. Tailyah Speights is a director on that committee and she says she regrets not taking advantage of more opportunities such as Odyssey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think\u00a0I\u00a0really needed that pep talk,” Speights said. “I needed to hear from our chancellor, our SGA president, everyone who did speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know he spoke about study abroad so that was something I just\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0know about until well into my second semester.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following semesters, Speights did get more involved and built a love and appreciation for Troy. Now, she hopes to instill that Trojan Pride into new students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the summer, I heard a lot of negative opinions from students like\u00a0maybe Troy wasn\u2019t\u00a0their first\u00a0option,” Speights said. “I feel like this is\u00a0a great way\u00a0to show that this is a great school, a school you would want to be at.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s so many things to offer to so many different students and so I just think it gets them more excited like \u2018Hey, I really do love this school.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This event was just one of many Welcome Week events with a shared goal: helping new students become a part of Troy\u2019s culture.\u00a0Directly after Odyssey Convocation, students made their way out to Tailgate\u00a0Terrace for Trojan Night Out<\/a> where they were further immersed in that culture. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 Freshmen\u00a0at Troy are\u00a0learning what\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0like to be a Trojan\u00a0following\u00a0an introductory pep rally\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0held every year\u00a0the day before classes begin.<\/p>\n

Culture plays a major part in the identity of a university, and sometimes it may be difficult for new students to align with that identity. Tuesday\u2019s Odyssey Convocation attempted to open the door for those students by…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":10515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[3188,3107,3187,2413],"topics":[17],"class_list":["post-10482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-troy-university-dr-korrie-lynn-williamson","tag-troy-university-new-student-orientation","tag-troy-university-odyssey-convocation","tag-troy-university-welcome-week","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10514,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482\/revisions\/10514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10482"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=10482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}