Pre-Orientation Programs

Pre-Orientation Programs at Georgetown University offer new students a chance to connect with peers, faculty, and staff around a specialized topic before their first semester at Georgetown. Pre-Orientation participants are immersed in a smaller community even before New Student Orientation begins. Reflecting a variety of interests to explore, Pre-Orientation Programs provide students with opportunities for discovery and adventure. Whether you explore the outdoors, engage with social justice topics, enhance your leadership skills, or broaden your scholarly horizons, you will learn more about yourself and meet new friends.

Pre-Orientation Programs are currently scheduled to take place from Sunday, August 17 through Friday, August 22, 2025. Pre-Orientation Programs are available to new first-year students and new transfer students starting their first semester at Georgetown in August 2025. Pre-Orientation Programs are free of cost unless otherwise noted below.

More information about the format of Pre-Orientation Programs will be released later this semester. More information on move-in dates and details for Pre-Orientation participants will be released later this summer.

Business Undergraduates Invested in Leadership Development (BUILD)

Hosted by the McDonough School of Business, BUILD is a Pre-Orientation program that offers intensive academic and leadership development opportunities for incoming first-year and transfer business students in the McDonough School of Business. BUILD’s mission is to integrate students from all backgrounds into the undergraduate business community before classes formally begin and provide them with a foundation for success in their first year at Georgetown. Minority students and those who identify as first-generation college students are highly encouraged to apply.

Campaign Bootcamp

Campaign Bootcamp will give students a behind-the-scenes look at political campaigning. Students will learn about the mechanics of political campaigns, from message development and polling to managing volunteers and getting out the vote. At the end of the program, students will put their knowledge to the test by simulating a competitive political campaign and helping their candidate win! This year, students will be looking at and simulating a real time 2025 campaign.

CURA: A Healthcare Pre-Orientation Program

CURA is a pre-orientation program for first-year students who are interested in exploring the intersections of healthcare and social justice, as well as Jesuit values through service, immersion, dialogue and reflection. Through our experiences together and with community leaders across all 8 wards of DC, we aim to develop the future of equity-oriented healthcare professionals, whether they choose careers in medicine, administration, law, policy, media, etc. We will work and grow together in our understanding of care within healthcare and how our actions, as Georgetown students, influence our community. Please reach out to cura@georgetown.edu with any questions! 

Encounter Pre-Orientation Program

Drawing on Georgetown’s historic commitments to religious pluralism and interreligious understanding, Encounter will equip incoming first-year students — those who identify with a particular religious tradition, and those who are unaffiliated — to build relationships that transcend differences and divisions, to engage in interfaith dialogue and to explore opportunities for collaboration toward the most pressing concerns of our world. Through experiences, reflection, and conversation, you will be encouraged to reflect on the journeys of meaning, belonging, and purpose that each brings to this work. You will be accompanied by Georgetown’s Catholic, Dharmic, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian chaplains, staff, and student leaders. The program will include an interfaith retreat at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center. 

First-Year Orientation to Community Involvement (FOCI)

The Center for Social Justice welcomes incoming first-year and transfer students to join Georgetown’s longest-running pre-orientation program: First-Year Orientation to Community Involvement (FOCI). FOCI is the beginning of making DC your new home and understanding that your education is not in isolation. Each year, fifty first-year and transfer FOCIans and fourteen undergraduate student leaders arrive on campus to spend five days together in the larger DC community. Our goal is to highlight the vibrancy of DC through volunteer activism and meaningful engagement with community partners as a way to explore social justice issues, frameworks of solidarity, and pathways for social change. Additionally, throughout the week, FOCI participants engage in a series of reflections to explore issues of social justice, social responsibility, and identity. Past service experience is not required, and we highly encourage all interested incoming first-year and transfer students to apply. At Georgetown, you learn; with FOCI, you do.

Leadership & Beyond (L&B)

Offered by Georgetown Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD), L&B gives new Hoyas the opportunity to discover Georgetown through the lens of leadership and social change. This week-long program is guided by the Social Change Model of Leadership, which promotes leadership through service. During this experience, students will develop their leadership skills and create their own definition of leadership. Participants are assigned a student mentor in which to guide them through this process and throughout the entirety of their freshman year. Through mentorship, self-reflection, and peer action, participants will get to know themselves, each other, and the ways in which their unique style enhances leadership experiences and their ability to effect change on the Hilltop and beyond. 

Georgetown Outdoor Pre-Orientation Program (GOPOP)

GOPOP is Outdoor Education’s (OE) Pre-Orientation GOPOP offers an exciting way for new Georgetown students to bond with their incoming classmates. Traveling through the backcountry with a group of 6-10 fellow students and trained Georgetown student guides, participants will have the chance to practice their leadership skills, meet and overcome challenges, and reflect on their transition to college. 

Given the travel associated with GOPOP, there is a fee associated with participating in a GOPOP trip. The Fall 2025 trip options for GOPOP are listed below:
— Virginia or West Virginia Backpacking – $400
— White Water Paddling 101 – $600
— D.C. Adventure – $500

Total Hoya Readiness: Introduction to Vocation & Excellence (THRIVE)

Centered around acclimating to collegiate academics and resources, cultivating self-efficacy navigating campus life, and fostering community, THRIVE is a week-long pre-orientation program designed to provide incoming students who may have less exposure to college than their peers to experience campus life with support as they transition to their lives on the Hilltop.