MORGANTOWN — Ready or not, here they come.
WVU Honors College students were the first to move in to their respective residence halls throughout the day Aug. 10.
“This is an exciting time, just to see the different emotions on people’s faces – some people are really excited and some are really nervous,” said Jeremiah Kibler, the residence hall coordinator for Honors Hall. “We try to help those that are nervous to get excited.”
This year’s incoming Honors College class at WVU is the largest it has ever had. Of the roughly 5,550 incoming first-year students, about 1,000-1,100 of them will be members of the WVU Honors College.
The majority of the new Honors College students moved in to Honors Hall, but others also spent Friday moving into Lincoln Hall, Summit Hall and Towers.
The rest of the incoming first-year students are moving in Aug. 11 all over campus.
Move-in weekend at WVU is a bittersweet time for parents like Matt Surella.
Surella, along with his wife and daughter, Nicole, drove to Morgantown from Northville, Michigan on Thursday night to move Nicole into Honors Hall on Friday morning.
It’s never easy to say goodbye to a child as they head off to college and get their first taste of living on their own in the “real world.”
“I’m really happy for her, and she’s excited to be here,” Surella said. “This is where she wants to be. It’ll be sad to not have her around at home anymore, but that’s part of growing up. You want them to be independent and move off on their own.”
Surella said Nicole was particularly enamored with WVU’s nursing school and the atmosphere that the university has to offer.
“She was able to get a direct admit into the nursing program, as well as get into the honors program here,” Surella said. “She got a scholarship as well, so that absolutely helped.”
Like any parent, Surella hopes that college will allow Nicole to continue to mature and become even more independent.
“I hope she learns a ton and meets good people, friends that she’ll have for life,” he said.
For Elias Costello, coming to WVU had always been the plan for the Fairmont native.
Like many teens leaving home for the first time to go to college, he’s ‘ecstatic’ for the experiences that lay ahead of him and he’s most looking forward to his newfound freedom.
Costello, who moved in to Summit Hall on Friday, plans to study marketing while he’s at WVU.
“I see a lot of businesses in West Virginia moving out of the state, and I want to use my degree to work to bring those businesses back,” he said.
After move-in, WVU has a multitude of activities planned for students as a part of Welcome Week before classes start Aug. 15.
Food Fest and the annual FallFest concert are usually popular events among the students, but Kibler always looks forward to Monday Night Lights.
“One of my favorites is Monday Night Lights where we bring (all the first-year students) to Mountaineer Field and line up on the field in the state outline,” Kibler said.
Once they all moved in, the Honors College students participated in the Honors Induction Ceremony on Friday evening.
“We’re going to have our entire Honors College class, no matter if they’re in Honors Hall, Lincoln Hall, Summit Hall or Towers, wherever they are — even the off-campus ones — we’re going to bring them all together,” Kibler said.
“It’s a really cool experience for them to feel like they’re a part of something big, being part of the university and part of the Honors College.”
