A colorful Houston sunrise lit up the Audubon Blend brick of the new Sid Richardson College as the tower welcomed the earliest batch of new Rice students to move in August 15. Starting at 6:30 a.m., incoming freshmen and transfer students from across the world converged on campus in cars, transport vans and shuttle buses for the first day of O-Week, Rice’s annual orientation week ahead of each fall semester.
Sid Richardson freshman Tania García-Jasso was particularly excited for the morning to arrive. García has vivid memories of writing in her 8th grade journal about her future plans to attend Rice. Now, the day itself was here. The valedictorian of her graduating class in Pharr, García and her family drove from from the Rio Grande Valley to Rice, where she was among the first of the Class of 2025 to be welcomed to campus.
“It's just unbelievable that I'm here,” she said, as a rush of red-shirted Sidizens and Rice football players collected her belongings and began moving them into her new dorm room upstairs. All around, other O-Week advisors held up signs and greeted cars with rally songs and dances, while others ensured the lines of families and new students moved with cheerful efficiency.
“It's nothing like what I expected but in the best way possible,” García said. “And I love it.”
It was still early in the day as Lovett College students moved into their new dormitory. Lovett sophomore and O-Week advisor Emma Korsmo wiped away spontaneous tears of joy as she exclaimed to her friends, “I just met my first kid!”
Advisors, Korsmo explained, “form this family bond that stays with you through all four years at Rice. We’re their parents and they’re our kids.”
Far from simply welcoming students to campus and unloading their suitcases, O-Week advisors serve as guides and mentors throughout a student’s college career, helping out with everything from academic questions to social issues.
”It's a really special relationship and it's something that I'm really glad that Rice has, because not a lot of other colleges have it and it makes the move-in process so much easier,” Korsmo said.
This O-Week in particular marks a return to somewhat normal conditions following a 2020 O-Week that took place under strict COVID guidelines.
“Freshman year, our O-Week looked really different than this,” Korsmo said. “It's just so amazing. And it's like I'm reliving my own O-Week, but even better this time.”
Will Rice freshman Malcolm Daleus had arrived in Houston from Hoboken, and the New Jersey native was all smiles amid the friendly frenzy of O-Week advisors cheering his name upon arrival.
“It's one of the best welcomes I've ever gotten in my life,” Daleus said. “It made me 10 times more excited to be here.”
His mom, Elwine, admitted to more mixed feelings as she sent her third and youngest child off to college.
“We're gonna go home and it's gonna be empty,” she said. “I'm not gonna hear ‘Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom’ every second anymore. So I'm really emotional this morning. But you know, it's a great journey and I'm happy for him.”
At Rice to study engineering, Daleus said he’d had his heart set on Rice all the way from the Garden State after his first visit to campus, calling it “the perfect school for me.”
“The atmosphere here was amazing,” Daleus said. “All the kids seemed happy. It has the academic rigor that I wanted. It was everything I needed, man.”
The morning flew by for students and parents alike. Soon, it was 11 a.m. and almost every incoming student had been moved on to campus. In the sunlit Jones College commons, families gathered under decades of winning Beer Bike banners to begin their goodbyes.
Jones College freshman Jerron-Michael Arline was among them, with a big batch of family members from Beaumont there to see him off, including mom Tracy. The two of them, mother and son, went viral earlier this year after a Facebook post that featured a photo of Jerron-Michael gently assisting his mother, who has cerebral palsy, with her wheelchair. He has been her primary caregiver since he was 14 years old.
A 2021 Piper Scholar who plans to pursue a career as a physician, Arline always knew he wanted to attend Rice and was excited to start his undergraduate experience.
“I know all the resources here are just great for preparing for medical school,” said Arline, an affectionate knot of family members surrounding him. “And also, I just love the culture. I love the college system. I think it seems like a very homey place. And it just feels right for me.”
That Rice felt like home was important to Tracy, too, as she prepared to part from her son for the first time.
“As a mom, I want him to fly like an eagle,” she said. “I raised him to fly like an eagle. But we’re gonna miss him. We’ve been a tight unit for years.”