A staple of New Student Orientation Week at Andrews University is the formation of family groups, which consist of two student leaders and 10–15 new students who gather for interactive games, meals and relationship-building exercises during orientation and throughout the semester.
Kaitlyn Yanez, a senior at Andrews, signed up to become a family group leader for the 2025–2026 school year. Studying psychology with a pre-law emphasis and minoring in criminal justice, she currently calls Berrien Springs, Michigan, home with her mother and sister.
Kaitlyn explains that when the call for family group leaders circulated her junior year, she almost decided not to go through with it. Something made her pause, though, and she put her name down.
She shares, “My sister was going to be a freshman, and I wanted her to have a good family group leader. This made me realize that other older siblings would want the same for their younger siblings. I decided I would be a leader not only to make my sister proud but to be someone I would trust any of my siblings with. I wanted to be a pillar for the freshmen who came into Andrews, and it changed my life.”
Throughout Orientation Week, Kaitlyn and her co-leader learned each of the new students’ names, led them through activities and introduced them to favorite spots on campus.
Kaitlyn notes that the groups “create a balance and a tiny little community where freshmen can learn and grow together.” She committed to strengthening that small community for the new students so that they could feel safe and loved. Through this commitment, she was able to offer an example of the deep-rooted community that exists at Andrews.
“I really, really believe that they impacted me,” Kaitlyn says. “There would be times that I would get a late-night text from one of my kids and they would ask me little questions about school or just anything. They trusted me enough to ask, and this touched me and made me want to live in a way that would impact others at Andrews.”
Kaitlyn shares that she has so much love for all of the freshmen in her family group. As she completes her education, hoping to eventually move to New York to practice business law, Kaitlyn will remember how much she’s grown and learned from this community. She reflects, “I will forever be grateful for this experience.”