The Penn Stater Magazine

Do You Remember Your First Day at Penn State?

April 17, 2009 at 11:51 am Tina Hay 2 comments

Greg Grieco/Penn State Public Information

I’m talking about your very first day as a Penn State student. We’re looking for stories that we might print in The Penn Stater as part of a collection of readers’ tales of arrival day.

The idea came from a conversation I had at an Alumni Council dinner a few years back with an alumna who was reminiscing about her first day. Her parents drove her up from Maryland, I think it was, and she cried pretty much the whole way up. She spent most of that first day holed up in her dorm room, homesick, until a couple of dorm-mates befriended her and got her out to some activities, and suddenly everything looked a lot better.

So, what do you remember about your first day as a Penn State student? Whatever the campus—whether it was University Park or another campus—we’d love to hear your story. Give us your memories of packing your belongings at home … driving … unpacking … saying goodbye to Mom and Dad … getting lost on campus … making your first Penn State friends.

Write your story—no more than 300 words, please—and send it to us by e-mail (pennstater@psu.edu), fax (814-863-5690), or mail (Hintz Family Alumni Center, University Park, PA 16802). We’re hoping to print the best tales in our September-October issue.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry filed under: Penn State students, The Penn Stater magazine, Undergraduate education. Tags: college freshmen, move-in day, orientation week, Penn State Alumni Council.