August 07, 2009
New
Student Orientation at St. John’s University would not be complete
without a valuable gift of technology. As part of their welcome to
St. John’s, on August 5, the University distributed brand new
Lenovo ThinkPad X200 laptops to students from the class of 2013 and
spoke about the importance of proper laptop care.
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Consisting of three-day sessions that run throughout the summer,
New Student Orientation is an opportunity for students to learn
about the mission of the University, meet their fellow class
members, faculty and administrators, tour the campus and become
acquainted with their role as new college students. When
orientation concludes later this summer, the University will have
handed out a laptop to each of its 3,200 new
students.
Guided by their orientation leaders, the students headed
over to the University Center Commons to receive their laptops. At
this event, named Technology Day, the University’s Department of
Information Technology distributed over 100 Lenovo ThinkPad X200
laptops to students attending their last day of orientation.
Equipped with 2 GB of memory, extended battery life and essential
software, the laptops are part of St. John’s Academic Computing
Initiative (ACI) which gives all students access to technology that
meets their needs in the 21st century. “I’m so happy to have
my own laptop. Before I had to share the computer with my two
sisters, but now I have a computer of my own. No more whining or
complaining about someone hogging the computer,” said Vanessa Henry
who will be a freshman in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences this fall.
After giving out the laptops, Information Technology presented the
students with a tutorial of St. John’s
Central – the portal for current student resources – and guided
them on the policies of ownership and use of a St. John’s
laptop.
“The X200 is an upgrade of the T61 model that the students received
last year. This newer version has a 2.40 GHz processor, 160 GB hard
drive, webcam and microphone – making this computer even faster and
more functional than last year’s,” explained Jennifer Rivera,
Project Manager of Laptop Support.
In addition to the state-of-the-art hardware, the students will be
using Microsoft Live@edu, which features 25 GB of password
protected online storage space called SkyDrive. The entire class of
2013 will be able to do their coursework, check their St. John’s
e-mail, use the Web and print documents from virtually anywhere on
campus.
“I think this laptop was a nice welcome gift. I’ve never had a
laptop before; I plan on using it for everything,” said Nicholas
Esposito, a future biology major.
To learn more about St. John’s Academic Computing
Initiative or the Laptop
program, please visit the Information Technology
web page. To learn more about our New Student Orientation program,
please visit the
New Student Orientation web page.