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Transition and Transformation: Inside the First-Year Experience

For many students, the first year of college is a wild ride of unexpected twists and turns. Not only are they living away from home for the first time, but they’re also learning to adapt to new levels of rigor in the classroom, new levels of complexity in their social environments and unprecedented access to opportunities that will inform their identities and shape their futures. It’s a year of unforeseen challenges – and unimaginable growth.

To gain some insight into what this pivotal time of transition looks like at ¶¶’`ÉçÇø, we asked a few first-year students to share their experiences with us in real-time. After connecting with them during their initial days on campus, we then checked back in throughout the months that followed. Each student was generous with their stories, openly talking about everything from time management to Greek recruitment, from challenging professors to changing family dynamics, from leadership roles to life in a residence hall.

What we learned is that each first-year journey is entirely unique, and everyone moves at their own pace and in their way. Yet despite the differences, several common themes consistently emerge from the stories these students tell – themes like belonging, self-discovery and expanded intellectual horizons. These students may have only spent nine short months at ¶¶’`ÉçÇø, but the transformation has already been profound.

Follow along as we get to know these students and walk through year one alongside them.

Student Wyatt Brewster talks with a classmate
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Student Amelia Roser dances at block party
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Student Ava Lehmkuhler on steps of East College
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Student Cooper Macy walks beneath arch
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August: Settling In

It’s late summer in Greencastle. The air is hot and humid, and a chorus of cicadas is making its presence known across town. At Robe Ann Park, pickleballs ping back and forth across the net. At Dairy Castle, kids hurry to finish their ice cream cones before they melt. And on ¶¶’`ÉçÇø’s campus, five hundred students have just arrived to begin their first year of college.

Although they come from all over the state, all over the country and all over the world, these new arrivals are united by Tiger pride and a shared anticipation for what they’re about to experience. They’re nervous. And uncertain. And maybe even a little bit homesick. But they’re ready to begin the next four years in pursuit of a world-class liberal arts education.