In June, I spent my time as an Orientation Leader for Quinnipiac University. One of my favorite parts of the job, other than meeting students, is being able to share my music with them. 

A big identifier of how to find me on the Quad is my music playing on the speakers I have attached to my navy-blue backpack. Having been back home for a couple of weeks, here are a few of the songs that people would hear me play the most:

“Mmm Yeah (Feat. Pitbull)” – Austin Mahone

This was a big song for me this year. It came out in the early 2010s and it’s a song I kind of forgot about until this past summer. I listen to other songs by Mahone and I love them. So of course, when June rolled around, I knew I wanted to include some of his music. 

Along with this, I’m also a huge Pitbull fan so to remember that he was featured on this song was one of the best feelings. I honestly think that I ended up getting a lot of other staff members to remember this song when I walked around the Quad playing it.

“Maria” – Justin Bieber 

This song has the best energy. I would play this at Evening Entertainment, where the first-years have the chance to meet other students in other groups, before DJ Mike would take over and play his mashups and mixes. Personally, when I was on the Quad playing this at 7 a.m. it made for the best wakeup call to hear Justin Bieber’s voice that early. 

I hope that any of the first-years that heard this know I was having a lot of fun playing it. 

“Va Va Voom” – Nicki Minaj 

I had to show some love for Ms. Nicki Minaj. While I am not the biggest fan, (I am still a fan) this song gives me that feeling of summer. Where I’m outside in the sun for a portion of the day, attempting to tan. This song also has the right energy to capture the attention of other groups around us, so they knew that we were coming around.

“Rush” – Troye Sivan 

This is a song that I played maybe two or three times a day. Either it would come up on shuffle or I would purposely put it into the queue. This was another song that I would play during Evening Entertainment, and I would blast it as we were leaving the Student Center for the night and making our way over to Commons. 

This song has such a catchy beat that it was also constantly stuck in my head during presentations or when I was walking around to help during course registration on day two of orientation.

“Right Round (Feat. Ke$ha)” – Flo Rida

I’ve really been missing Flo Rida since he came and performed here at Quinnipiac for Wake the Giant back in April of this year. I’ve always played more of his nostalgic songs just for fun, but I always seem to have this one stuck in my head. 

The first day of Orientation Sessions, this was one of the first songs I played, just so I could see what kind of vibes I was getting from the other students. This song is my determining factor of what songs I’ll queue up from the orientation playlist that I have made.

My soundtrack to orientation had over 300 songs in the playlist. I’ve included some of the honorable mentions for songs that I’ve played a lot during the month!

Honorable Mentions:

“CARNIVAL (Feat. Playboy Carti)” –  ¥$, Kanye West, Ty Dolla $ign & Rich The Kid

“The Spins” – Mac Miller

“Nonsense” – Sabrina Carpenter

“Better Place” – *NSYNC & Justin Timberlake

“WILDFLOWER” – Billie Eilish

“obsessed” – Olivia Rodrigo