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.
Starting at 6:30 a.m., Aug. 15, 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 before every fall semester.
Sid Richardson freshman Tania García-Jasso was particularly excited. García has vivid memories of writing in her eighth-grade journal about her future plans to attend Rice. The valedictorian of her graduating class in Pharr, Texas, García and her family drove in 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 advisers 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 adviser Emma Korsmo wiped away tears of joy as she exclaimed to her friends, “I just met my first kid!”
Advisers, 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 advisers 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-19 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.”
Nearby, Priya Narayanan was adding another Owl to the family: Daughter Deepika graduated in 2019, and now her son Pranav — salutatorian of his class at Katy’s Tompkins High School — was entering his freshman year to study bioscience.
“This is the second time and it's wonderful now as it was then,” she said.
Choosing Rice was about more than the proximity and familiarity, Pranav said.
“Rice is an intellectual community of its own, and Houston is an amazing place to be, to thrive, to grow,” Narayanan said. “It's all about exploring what your future is — what your path will be — and that’s what Rice will give you.”
Will Rice freshman Malcolm Daleus had arrived in Houston from New Jersey, and the Hoboken native was all smiles amid the friendly frenzy of O-Week advisers cheering his name upon his 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.”
As an engineering student, Daleus had his heart set on Rice all the way from the Garden State since 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 enough, it was 11 a.m., and almost every incoming student had moved onto campus. In the sunlit Jones College commons, families gathered under decades of Beer Bike victory banners to begin their goodbyes.
Jones College freshman Jerron-Michael Arline was among them, with a big batch of family members including his mom Tracy, who’d traveled from their southeast Texas home in Beaumont. The two of them, mother and son, went viral earlier this year. A touching Facebook post featured a photo of Arline gently helping his mother with her wheelchair. She has cerebral palsy, and her son has been her primary caregiver since he was 14 years old.
A 2021 Piper Scholar who plans to become 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, with 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.”
Rice feeling 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.”
Outside, Jones College freshman Seryna Ayala was wrapped in the embrace of her mom, Norma. Mario, her father, had driven the entire family from Edinburg in South Texas. Now it was time for mom, dad and brother to make the long walk back to their car and the longer trip home.
“As a student, I'm really excited to be here,” Seryna said. “But as a daughter, I'm gonna miss them so much.”
Rice had been a goal for their daughter since middle school, Mario said. “A lifelong achievement for her,” he said, beaming down at the new freshman at his side.
“We're very proud of her and everything she's done to get here,” Norma said. “We’re gonna miss her, but we’re not that far away.”
