printable versionIncoming students get big welcome (and a thunderstorm)
Resident assistants at Florence Moore Hall convened to greet arriving freshmen (and mug for the camera).
Freshmen roommates Hugh Gorman and Nghi Nguyen moved in to Florence Moore Hall.
Ashley McCullough of Berkeley looked just slightly overwhelmed. An orientation volunteer announced her name through a bullhorn as she trundled a suitcase on Sept. 20 toward the entrance of Florence Moore Hall, her new home away from home. While McCullough filled out registration forms, her mom, Winifred Stone, calmly surveyed the riotous scene. “The Stanford welcome is famous!” she said.
As “Love Shack” by the B-52’s blasted through speakers festooned with red and white balloons, dozens of residence assistants and peer mentors at Florence Moore, known as FloMo, enthusiastically welcomed McCullough and 53 other frosh to their new life as Stanford undergraduates.
It was the start of Stanford’s 115th opening day celebrations for the Class of 2009. Later on that afternoon, when an unexpected thunderstorm soaked campus, frosh and their families abandoned plans to meet in the Main Quad and instead crowded into Memorial Church, where President John Hennessy officially welcomed 1,635 incoming freshman and 50 transfer students during a formal ceremony.
But earlier in the day, the mood was lighthearted and raucous as incoming frosh met their roommates for the first time and started learning the essentials of campus life.
“They need to have a bike. They have to respect each other,” said junior Fareed Qureshi, a FloMo resident assistant. “Fulfill your GERs,” added sophomore Darwin Cruz, another resident assistant. “Follow your passions.”
Staff in West FloMo had prepared for orientation by gathering in Bodega Bay for a retreat where they learned about the university’s policies on alcohol and dating. Resident assistant Lindsay Garlock said dorm staff are not allowed to date incoming students and that police—not staff—are expected to enforce underage drinking laws. Rosemary Reidy, a head peer academic coordinator who lived in FloMo during her freshman year, said she volunteered for orientation because she wanted to help new students the same way dorm staff first welcomed her. “They made my transition a lot easier,” she said.
Freshman McCullough, a high school graduate of Marin Academy in San Rafael, said she picked Stanford because she wants to work with the Foster Care College Project at the Haas Center for Public Service. A native of Texas, McCullough said she was placed in care when she was just 10 years old. “When I grow up I want to change the foster care system,” she said.
Other frosh who rolled into FloMo may not have been as career-oriented as McCullough, but they were just as excited to be on campus.
“It’s really amazing,” said Adamma Spearman of Denver as she picked up her identity card and keys. “I wasn’t expecting this.” Spearman’s mother, Janice, added that Adamma’s brother attends Columbia. “There was no show like this there,” she said, smiling.
On the sidewalk outside FloMo, Malcolm Jenkins of Woodinville, Wash., explained why he sought—and obtained—early admission to Stanford. “It’s a fabulous school,” he said. “It’s on the West Coast. It’s pretty cool.”
