It’s 6:15 on a summer morning, and the sound of alarm clocks can be heard throughout the second and third floors of Brumby Hall. In less than three hours, hundreds of incoming freshmen will arrive, embarking on their first journey as a Georgia Bulldog – and it’s your job to help them every step of the way.

When the clock strikes 9 a.m., students and their parents file into the theater of the Fine Arts building, uncertain of what the next two days will hold.

Music starts playing, and it is almost time to take the stage. Sweaty palms, a racing heart and nervous thoughts of “what if” start to enter your mind.

What if they don’t like my song? What if they don’t like me?

Putting the thoughts aside, the anxiety eases as you run onto the stage and see the audience – you’re an Orientation Leader, or OL.

Just who are the smiling, energetic faces that guide freshmen and their parents around for two days? Well, it all started back in the spring.

After a series of interviews with more than 200 prospective candidates, 12 University students were chosen to be the 2008 Orientation Leaders. Throughout the spring semester, the group met weekly, and orientation staff held training sessions on public speaking skills and quick thinking. On May 27, the OLs returned to Athens to complete a week of comprehensive training.

The training focused on displaying honesty, respect and knowledge, said Milly Legrá, director of orientation.

“We give them the charge to be good, respectful ambassadors to the University, but it is up to them to produce,” Legrá said.

The team had eight early mornings and late nights to complete and perfect a series of skits and introductions.

“There were days we did not sleep until 3 a.m.,” said Bailey Simpson, a senior public relations major from Oklahoma. “It was challenging, but that is when we bonded the most.”

At the first session, the leaders arrive in the Brumby Rotunda at about 7:15 a.m. to help students with check-in.

Leaders are charged with responsibilities to deliver and pick up placement tests, secure meal plan tickets and provide answers to questions about services and policies.

Approximately 25 students are assigned to each leader, allowing leaders to make connections.

“The small numbers make the program unique. We are able to provide personal attention,” Legrá said.

Students and parents are given folders with brochures and papers with University information, which the OLs stuff every two weeks for three to four hours. Students are also given a neck wallet, which displays their name, group number and hometown.

A “Passport to Success” provides an itinerary and daily schedule, campus map, campus transit inst-ructions and meal tickets.

Though orientation is mandatory for incoming freshmen, the orientation staff seeks to make the two-day experience enjoyable and informative for parents and students.

“The program focuses on easing parents’ and students’ fears. We want them to have fun and get the information they need,” Legrá said.

Leaders balance both the “information” and “fun” with interactive activities in the morning and evening.

The first day’s schedule is packed with tours, placement tests, housing discussion groups, group meetings with OLs and guided registration on OASIS.

The first day ends with “Orientation Live!,” a series of high energy, entertaining skits performed by the OLs. Although the skits may appear random, each highlights different first-year experiences at the University.

From the moment the OLs hit the stage chanting “O-R-I-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N! Do you know where you begin? 2012 stand up!” to calling the Georgia Bull-dogs at the end, the group is energetic and all smiles.

After 45 minutes of performing, the leaders take a moment to discuss events of the next day and give “shout-outs” to friends and family who came to watch them perform. Fifteen minutes later, they arrive at the Brumby Rotunda to mingle with students at a pizza party sponsored by the University Student Alumni Association.

As students return to dorms and parents to hotels to sleep, OLs prepare for another day of service.

Breakfast is between 7 and 8 a.m., and day two brings a shorter, yet important, day with academic meetings, housing tours and a resource fair.

The fair, held in the fourth floor rotunda of the Student Learning Center, marks day two’s beginning.

With 16 orientation sessions, a grueling daily schedule and minimal sleep, it can be difficult for the leaders to maintain high energy.

“My team keeps me going,” Simpson said.

Schedule variation helps to limit monotony of daily routines.

For every orientation session, one leader serves as moderator and leads announcements and prep talks. Specific duties are rotated each day.

“Milly [Legrá] does a great job keeping the daily duties fresh. We never do the same thing,” Simpson said.

Despite the long days, Orientation Leaders said they love the job because they can help students.

“I want to leave knowing that I touched someone’s life, that I made a difference,” said Kemah George, a junior international affairs major from Lawrenceville.

And their hard work is not in vain.