“I’m comin’ up, so you better get this party started.”
That was the command by Pink, which blared over the April Zorn Memorial Stadium loudspeakers as more than 100 members of the Fighting Scots football team got in a Saturday morning practice.
Just over the hill, nearly two dozen cars – with license plates from Iowa, Missouri and Michigan, in addition to a fleet of Illinois vehicles – symbolized just that as they lined the eastern border of campus on Ninth Street. Parents, siblings and an eager crew of orientation leaders and residence life staff helped unload the new students’ clothes, refrigerators, groceries, tech items, and other gear and shuttle it to their rooms.
Unofficially, around 110 students moved in Saturday, but that’s misleading. Roughly 80% of Monmouth’s students were already on campus, with the football team and other fall sports accounting for a large chunk of that, as well as members of the Fighting Scots Marching Band and the aforementioned res life staff.
In all, Monmouth expects its final total of incoming freshmen and transfer students to be 265, making it the largest group of new students in five years.
SOFIA presentations
The students who’d been on campus the longest were participants in the college’s three-week SOFIA program. They shared the results of their research at an afternoon presentation in the Center for Science and Business.
Emily Perez-Castillo of Chicago, who worked on a project that investigated inter-generational communication, explained to the admission team how she came to choose Monmouth.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted when it came to college. When I visited Monmouth it felt right. The small campus and tight-knit community was something I didn’t know I needed. The amount of trees and nature on campus gives it such a whimsical feel. My tour guide kept greeting everyone, and to me it was surprising to see such community.”
Another participant, the appropriately named Sophia Kern, said, “I’ve gotten to know the campus really well and made a lot of friends” over the past three weeks.
A freshman from Abingdon, Illinois, Kern worked on a successful project to create a device that can be coded to water plants, using the power from solar energy. One of her research teammates was another first-year student, Addison Luna of Richview, Illinois.
“It’s been extremely helpful getting to know the campus with only 75 or so students around,” said Luna. “I’m so glad I’m already all moved in and don’t have to do that today.”
Indeed, nearly matching the 110 students moving in was the reading on the real-feel index, which had crept into triple-digits by mid-afternoon.
First-year students weren’t the only ones excited to be on campus.
“We’re so back!” exclaimed Brady Arrenius ’26, who was with a gathering of Zeta Beta Tau brothers and other returning students just inside Winbigler Hall.
Despite being an upperclassman, Arrenius had been away from Monmouth for more than just the summer, as he took part in a six-month study abroad program in Uruguay. While there, he was fully immersed in the Spanish language. Asked to narrow it all down to five words or less, the Spanish and political science major replied, “A great experience, but difficult.”
Another individual excited to be back was Amanda Havens Pilger, the college’s new retail operations manager. The 2007 alumna was on the lower level of Stockdale Center in Tartan Threads, the school’s brand-new spirit store, which officially opened only minutes earlier.
“I’ve had a lot of pinch-me moments,” said Pilger. “This is the perfect job for me. It’s my passion, and getting to do it here at Monmouth is icing on the cake. Lots of good memories are coming back.”
Havens said the store – which will have regular hours Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – had already done more than $1,000 in business, with some of that coming earlier in the week before the official opening. Tartan Threads will also be open on football game days and for special events.
Matriculation ceremony
While the arrival times of Monmouth’s new students were scattered across the course of a three-week period, there was a unifying moment Saturday afternoon – the college’s traditional matriculation ceremony, held on Wallace Hall Plaza under the watchful eye of its iconic cupola. The event featured greetings to the Class of 2029 from President Patricia Draves, Vice President for Enrollment Management Stephanie Levenson and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mark Willhardt.
Levenson shared the results of an informal survey of the Class of 2029, including the new students’ “party trick.” Maya Blackmon of Chicago “can memorize numbers and stats instantly, making her a valuable member of any trivia team on game night,” quipped Levenson. Casey Carithers of Astoria, Illinois, “can crack an apple in half with her bare hands.”
The most popular names among the new students are Hannah and Jacob. Forty-seven percent of the class are first-generation college students, and 63% are student-athletes.
Willhardt addressed the new scholars.
“Every single one of your professors is ready to help you discover the real value in intellectual struggle, so you can meet their high expectations and then go beyond them,” he said. “You’ll learn a new kind of hard work, and faculty will be right there helping you. … In all of you, your professors see potential: the potential to learn more, do more and achieve more.”
Also speaking were Mark Tupper ’94, president of the Alumni Board, and Joey Twardowski ’26 of Mark, Illinois, president of Scots Student Senate.
“Every day, Monmouth offers you a reason to step out of your room and try something new,” said Twardowski. “I challenge you to find that reason. The reason you came here will never change. However, the reason you stay is whatever you make of it, and that starts today.”
“Embrace this college community, and it will embrace you 10 times back,” said Tupper.
President Draves gave the students five specific things to remember about Monmouth College:
We take the mission of this place seriously, and that mission is all about you;
Your new community has some great characteristics and values;
You are welcomed and we want you to bring your authentic self;
Being uncomfortable is part of your growth as a person;
Today you join an on-going and expansive community.
Next-to-last at the podium was Ella Goodrich ’26 of Minonk, Illinois, president of the Mortar Board honor society, who led the students in the Monmouth College Pledge. It reads, in part, “We will explore together our similarities and our differences and, through that exploration, seek to become more fully ourselves and more fully members of a genuine community of learners.”
***Courtesy of Barry McNamara, Monmouth College***
