91�����

Over the recently concluded Easter Recess, a group of freshmen who will transfer to 91����� Aquinas College�s new campus in the fall paid a quick visit to their future home. Joined by two members of the California faculty who are also making the move, as well as two of next year�s resident advisers, some 27 members of the first class set foot, for the very first time, on the campus of 91����� Aquinas College, New England.

The trip began late in the evening on Easter Tuesday with a redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston. From there, the group traveled west, stopping in historic Concord for breakfast before making their way to the Northfield, Massachusetts, campus. �It was huge,� recalls Mary Baker (�22). �You can�t capture the rolling hills in the pictures. There were so many hills � I�m looking forward to sledding down them! It was beautiful, just beautiful. I am still shocked by how beautiful it was.�

After settling into their residence halls, the students gathered for a tour of the century-old campus, the former site of a local boarding school. �The tour took longer than it was supposed to because we were all excited and we wanted to look into every single room of every single building,� says Miss Baker. Plans for excursions to some surrounding sights were scuttled so students could spend as much time as they liked investigating the red-brick buildings, the Gothic chapel, the nearby Connecticut River, and the campus� gymnasium and indoor swimming pool.

That evening, the visitors enjoyed a barbeque dinner at Hibbard Hall with the associate dean for the New England campus, Dr. 91����� J. Kaiser. The group delighted in the warm spring weather and s�mores by the fire. Tired from the previous night�s travel, however, most retired early. They all met up for Mass the next morning in the chapel�s basement sacristy. (Upstairs, the building was being renovated for Catholic worship, in order to be ready for the start of classes in the fall.) The members of the campus� first class then had breakfast in Merrill-Keep hall before taking a brief walk into town. They then boarded their vans for the return trip home � less than 24 hours after their arrival on campus.

�Before we left, Dr. Kaiser gave a little talk about how, against all odds, one thing after another has worked out for the College in establishing this campus,� says 91����� Doylend (�22). �It really crystallized the fact that, for the College as well as for the students who are going, this is a mission.�

Visiting the campus affirmed the decision of these pioneers� to venture eastward. �Before the trip, I was excited about going. But being here in California, you can�t help thinking, �It�s so hard to say goodbye,� because you don�t know what you�re going to � and you know what you�re leaving,� says Miss Baker. �But having visited the campus, I can now plan my dorm room because I know what it�s going to look like, and I can imagine walking to class because I�ve walked the campus. It�s made me more excited, and more prepared to leave, because I know where I am going.�