Occasional grey skies couldn’t dampen the mood at the George Washington University last week as thousands of students returned to campus, bringing with them the vibrant energy of a new school year. Between Monday and Friday, over 2,300 first-year students moved into their Foggy Bottom or Mount Vernon Campus residence halls for the first time—lining sidewalks with boxes, laughing under the weight of rolled-up carpets and carefully transporting favorite stuffed animals, often with the help of friends and family.
Audrey Kim, a first-year in the Elliott School of International Affairs who traveled across the country this week with her mother, Sharon, and Aunt Woo, was unfazed by the intermittent drizzle dampening her arrival at Potomac House. In fact, the Southern California native said part of her excitement about GW was its Washington, D.C., location—less-than-perfect weather and all. “I was totally looking for a change of pace,” she said, laughing. “And I'm so excited. I got all my stuff situated this morning. It was really nice and easy.”
Many students took the opportunity to try new experiences that will probably soon become routine, like on-campus dining. Roommates Ava Golder and Addy Graves, who came to GW from Maine and Texas respectively, grabbed a meal at Shenkman Hall before returning to their residence in Guthridge Hall. There, they were greeted by GW President Ellen M. Granberg and Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Colette Coleman, part of a welcoming committee that also included Granberg’s wife, Sonya Rankin, Interim Provost John Lach, Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Michael Lipitz and other staff.
Coleman, who had eaten at Thurston Hall earlier, compared lunch notes with Golder and Graves. They’d heard Thurston was busy that day. “It was,” Coleman agreed. “But it was good!” The group chatted about their plans for the afternoon before parting, the students with new GW swag.
“Move-In is one of the most anticipated events of the year,” Granberg said. “It is a joy to welcome our newest students and their families to campus. Their pride and excitement are a reminder of the promise each new class brings. I look forward to the year ahead and to working with our community to help these remarkable students thrive, both in and out of the classroom.”
Families were everywhere, helping to tote luggage, teasing one another and sometimes sharing emotional moments. First-year student Sophia Im traveled from Seattle with her mother and her brother Conrad, five years her senior and a new college graduate himself, who helped her push a packed luggage cart into the elevator queue at Thurston Hall.
“I’m a little sad about leaving my family,” Im admitted. “But mostly I’m super excited.”
“It's fun to see her grown up—I wish I was a bit closer to make sure I could keep an eye on her,” Conrad said, ignoring his sister’s exaggerated grimace. “But I know she'll make good decisions.”
For Lach, move-in for first-year students had a lot of personal resonance, as the next day, his family would be moving his eldest son into a residence hall for his first year of college.
"It's been a pleasure to be able to greet and connect with our new students and families, not just from the perspective of my role as provost but from the vantage point of being a new college parent too," Lach said. "I can already tell that the Class of 2029 will have amazing things to offer to our community."
Columbus Johnson, wearing a shirt and hat that proclaimed him a proud GW dad, traveled from Atlanta to move his daughter Cecilia, the youngest of his three children, into Guthridge Hall.
“I'm proud of her, and I'm excited that she's about to go into the next chapter of her life,” Johnson said. If he had one piece of advice to offer his daughter, he said, it would be to “Enjoy the experience.”
More than 200 GW staffers and volunteers also assisted with Operation Rev Up!, guiding students and families to their destinations, helping with line and traffic management, directing activities and more. As students ascended elevators with trolleys packed with luggage and furniture, hardworking facilities staff descended with equally packed carts of discarded material for recycling and disposal.
Seniors Bridget Carey and Malaika Mbullu, both student facilities employees, spent months making sure everything was in place for move-in. On Thursday, they were on hand to help put up signs, make needed last-minute adjustments and guide confused new arrivals.
“We've been working all summer to make sure everything's ready,” Carey said. And seeing the fruits of their labor was satisfying, she and Mbullu agreed.
At Madison Hall, a line to move in was out the door, as Khadija Ndiaye and her mother, Adama, waited for an elevator. They arrived in Foggy Bottom the day before from Lynn, Massachusetts. Khadija plans to major in biology and is grateful for the financial assistance that made it possible for her to attend her top choice of universities.
There was little room on the elevator for other than Charlotte Berran, her parents, Peggy and Larry, and the two large carts of bookcases, other room furnishings and suitcases they hauled down from West Chester, Pennsylvania, earlier that morning in an admittedly oversized van that looked like a minibus.
“We had a lot of stuff and that was the only van available,” her father said. As they walked into the spacious and airy suite of rooms on the fourth floor, Charlotte expressed delight with its size and the private bathroom.
“GW has a really good international affairs program,” she explained. “It is in D.C., which has really great internship opportunities, and I’ve heard that GW has an ambitious culture and that will push me to do better.”
Across the hall, Maya Jones, was hanging clothes in a large closet, while her younger brother, Miles, watched her mother, Breana, put together a bookcase, and father, Dion, set up the bunk bed.
They explained that there are many friends and family in the DMV area that Maya can check in with. That eases their concerns about her first time away alone in the big city. Maya, who is majoring in political science with a public policy focus, likes being in the city and in the nation’s capital, because of her major, but finds it busier and more hectic than the Charlotte, North Carolina, suburbs she hails from. “I like it, but it takes a couple of days to get acclimated,” she said. “I like the culture, the history, the museums and the zoo, which I visited once.”
GW’s location in the seat of the federal government seemed a starting point for many entering students including Natalia Kmita, who is majoring in political science, wants to be a lawyer and a U.S. senator.
“Coming from a small town, Berlin, Connecticut, I do like cities a lot, and I knew I wanted to go to college into an urban setting,” she said.
Tate Jordan had scoped out the campus long before he chose GW, identifying it as the perfect place to continue his work lobbying on disability policy. He’s familiar enough with GW to show other incoming students around the campus.
“My right eye is a prosthetic, so the irony of that [is], you can show people around when you only have one eye,” he said. But Jordan preferred to talk about the tasks before him that is ready to start. “You know packages by Amazon,” he said. “There’s no way to get braille on those packages so I’m working on a bill to get that placed on packages.”
The organized chaos of move-in reminded Lipitz of the date 30 years ago when he was a first-year undergraduate student and all students moved onto a campus near GW in one day. Unsurprisingly, with more than 400 student athletes on campus, Lipitz met a couple of members of the lacrosse team and a student who plans to be on the swim team outside of the Potomac House.
“I’ve been really impressed with how efficient it’s been,” said Lipitz, who was volunteering for the first time during move-in since he came to work at GW. He observed the ease with which cars parked, and students and family piled carts high with suitcases, room decorations and other belongings. “The fact that the move-in is spread out over the week gave everybody a little more space to get settled.”
