MCLA Students Back on Campus
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| Helping Hand volunteer Jamal Ahamad leans into his work at MCLA. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Hundreds of students descended on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts campus on Saturday, traveling to the bucolic Berkshires from such exotic locales as Gardner, Wilbraham, Springfield and — Williamstown?
"I just need to find my own identity, become my own person," said 18-year-old Brandon Burns with chuckle about moving 10 minutes from home. "Isn't that what every college student says?"
Burns was just one of nearly 200 students expected to move into the Berkshire Towers on Church Street; hundreds more were moving into Hoosac Hall and other student housing on and off-campus over the weekend. Burns, with the help of his father, Robert Burns, was loading up a shopping cart with his possessions to truck into the towers. Other freshmen were being aided by the 80 or so Helping Hands crew - MCLA students who'd arrived early on campus to help the newcomers (and not-so-newcomers) move in.
The orange-shirted volunteers, who operate under the direction of Diane Manning, director of residential programs and services, included peer advisers, residential advisers, athletes and just about anyone who was willing to help out, said Larissa Huda, peer adviser and captain of the towers group.
"Most of the people have been really nice," said the 20-year-old Pittsfield resident. "There have been a few problems, nothing major. Things have been going really smooth."
Church Street was closed off from Blackinton Street south to nearly Bradley Street from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to allow vehicles dropping off students easy access to the campus. At the towers, cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles lined up along the street as family, friends and Helping Hands volunteers carried away boxes and bags or loaded up donated shopping carts.
Ken Levesque of Wilbraham had a pile by his car, waiting for a volunteer. He was dropping off not one but two students — a son and daughter, both on the fifth floor of the same tower.
"So far, so good," he said of the process, but the towers' uphill climb was a little daunting after move-in day last year at a different college for one of his kids. "They let us pull right up in front of the door and unload everything."
Returning students were familiar with the drill, but some newcomers were a little confused. Coleen Dempster had plenty of family along to help her move, but they weren't sure how to get where they wanted to go as they navigated the streets around the campus. The Springfield resident was transferring to MCLA for her sophomore year, drawn by its liberal arts program and setting.
"It's a small school in a quiet area," she said. Dempster planned to major in communications, and maybe theater. A few turns around the block and directions from a police officer put Dempster and her family on Church Street. They were soon lugging boxes into the sophomore's new dorm room.
At the tower doors, a line of shopping carts extended down the walkway as students waited for elevators; staff inside registered newcomers and directed students to the appropriate tower. Sporting big, pink, star earrings, freshman Tegan Roche of Gardner and her sister, Marissa Roche, 22, waited to enter the towers with a cart full of Tegan's belongings.
"I liked the slogan — 'a public school with a private attitude' — and it's in the mountains," said the 19-year-old of her decision to enroll at MCLA. "It feels good. It's nice to be on my own."
On the side of the entrance, Anita Parker of Littleton and Heather Mackesey of Clifton Park, N.Y., kept track of shopping carts being used by students.
"I remember my first time here," said Parker, a sophomore, on why she was a Helping Hand. "This is a huge step to take [moving from home to college]. It's nice to have someone here to help you."
Mackesey, a senior, is a peer adviser, so volunteering Saturday seemed an obvious thing to do. "I like helping people. And I'm helping transition people from being high school seniors to being college freshman."
"It's kind of welcoming to have someone here to help them," added fellow senior and peer adviser Lauren Ingignoli of Queensbury, N.Y. The students, new and old, cited MCLA's broad liberal arts program and intimate setting as their reasons for attending the public institution.
"I thought of a lot of other schools," said Brandon Burns, who graduated from Hoosac School in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., where his father is director of studies. "It wasn't so much the tuition, as that I wanted to go to a smaller school where I could have a relationship with my teachers. I heard a lot of good things about MCLA."
The arts management major said he didn't plan on going home to Williamstown too often. "I'm hoping it will feel further away than just 10 minutes."
Moving in is just the beginning of the college's First Days program, which includes tours, discussion and information sessions, games, activities, speakers and more. It ends with the annual convocation on Tuesday afternoon, marked by a formal procession through the college's gates and a speech by state Rep. Thomas J. Calter of the 12th Plymouth District, a 1980 graduate.
Tags: MCLA, moving,
