For many freshmen, moving into college meant packing the practical things like clothes, toiletries and pictures of family and friends; to make an unfamiliar room feel a little more like home.
For Jayne Gilchrist, that also meant making room for her childhood stuffed animal and a pair of cowboy boots.
“This is Buddy,” Gilchrist said, holding her stuffed animal close. “This is absolutely a necessity. I’ve had him since before I can even remember. Like, definitely needed to come from home.”
The small pieces of home mattered the most for Gilchrist, who traveled nearly 3,000 miles from Santa Clara, California, to begin her first year at Elon University. Her belongings may have made the trip with her, but the move meant leaving people, places and communities she had known her entire life.
“It was very terrifying,” Gilchrist said before arriving at Elon. “All my belongings are in the hotel room right now. It’s scary.”
Now, after her first few days on campus, that initial fear is beginning to become familiarity. Part of that transition has come from the people she has met and the communities Elon has built into campus life. Gilchrist is part of the Service Living-Learning Community and the Teaching Fellows program. According to Gilchrist, these programs have given her something to look forward to before she even arrived in North Carolina -- a place to belong.
At Elon, LLCs bring students with shared interest, academic goals or passions together in residential communities.
According to the Elon LLC website, the communities are designed to connect residential life with learning. Students can attend programs, participate in service opportunities, take courses together and interact with faculty and staff mentors who share their interests. Elon currently offers LLCs across its residential neighborhoods including creative arts, business, health sciences and communications.
The idea is that a student’s education does not stop when they leave the classroom, according to the Elon LLC website. For a first-year student, it can also mean that the transition to college does not have to happen alone. According to Gilchrist, this was particularly important.
“Back at home, I was really involved in service, volunteer hours, stuff like that,” Gilchrist said. “I was in Girl Scouts, so being a part of that community felt like home, giving back.”
This led her to the Service LLC in Elon’s East Neighborhood, looking for a way to continue that part of herself. Without the network she had at home, the structure provided has also mattered.
“Questions are definitely getting answered,” Gilchrist said. “If you have questions, I feel like everyone here is ready to support you. They’re excited to answer questions. Upperclassmen, staff, faculty, everybody is just here and ready to help.”
Gilchrist is also entering Elon with another built-in community.
She is a member of the Elon Teaching Fellows program, a four-year program for students interested in education and preparing for careers as teachers and education leaders.
“It’s so much fun to meet all these girls who are also super passionate about educating and becoming the teachers of tomorrow,” Gilchrist said.
Those relationships Gilchrist has started to build have given her another group of people who understand why she came to Elon and what she hopes to do after she leaves.
“It’s just like there’s this built-in sense of family and community that you already have mentors and people that are already there to help and support you,” Gilchrist said. “I’m not coming in completely fresh.”
Teaching Fellows have opportunities for study abroad experiences and was one of the aspects that stood out to Gilchrist when she was considering the program.
“They were encouraging to take all the classes and be really hands on and also really encouraging about studying abroad,” Gilchrist said. “That’s something I’m really excited about.”
While these opportunities with the program are still a while away, she said she is focusing on learning the people around her and figuring out how she fits into the Elon community.
Gilchrist said this process has not been entirely easy, she expects to miss the beach and her family.
Gilchrist is the first child in her family to go to college, with a younger brother two years behind. Her parents, she said, will have to adjust to having only one child at home.
When her parents left Elon during Orientation Weekend, the reality of the distance became more immediate.
“I don’t think I’ve seen my dad cry,” Gilchrist said. “I’m the first born, first person to go to college in my family. So then leaving was just like, ‘You got out, you made it, right? You’re here.”
Gilchrist said she plans to keep in touch through letters and keep pictures of family close by, but the first days at Elon have also given her new things to look forward to.
“Everyone here is so much nicer than people in LA,” Gilchrist said. “Everyone’s welcoming and nice, and my roommate’s amazing, so I’m really excited.”
At New Student Convocation, she said the ceremony gave her a glimpse of the ending that is still four years away and a nice bookend to the journey she just started. Gilchrist’s acorn that she received during the ceremony sits on her desk, a small reminder of growth she hopes to experience during her time at Elon.
“It is emotional, but I’m ready to take the next step,” Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist said she still has four years to figure out exactly who she will become and where she belongs.