On Friday, Aug. 22, the university welcomed the Class of 2018 to campus. As faculty, staff and student volunteers helped move first-years into their rooms, social media was abuzz with the excitement of a new class starting their UVM journey. New students and alumni, clubs and academic departments took to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to share photos from the day as well as advice and memories using the hashtag #moveuvm. That energy fueled a day-of-giving challenge, where 500 donors, with the help of two challenge pledges from an anonymous member of the Board of Trustees, raised more than $85,000 for the university in 24 hours.
Scroll through more than 40 moments from the day here -- and see what others have shared at go.uvm.edu/move
6:02 a.m. Sunrise on Athletic campus
7:40 a.m. Outside Christie Hall
Jeremy Nicholson and dad Andrew from Boulder, Colo. are the first to arrive at the Christie Hall parking lot for the Redsone campus move-in. Andrew’s advice for son Jeremy: Don’t stay cooped up. Get out and enjoy Vermont.
8:05 a.m. Christie-Wright-Patterson
Aaron Greenspun (left) of Westport, Conn., arrives at the Christie Wright Patterson parking lot with his parents, Scott and Abby, and brother, Jessie. Will Jessie miss his big brother? Maybe in one respect: "He's losing his driver," Abby says.
8:10 a.m. Chittenden-Buckham-Wills
8:22 a.m. parking lot outside Living/Learning, Building D
Lynn Moroney, Suffield, Conn. Her son Dan is a UVM junior and daughter Catherine moves in today. Her parting advice: “I told her to work hard and make things count, get out there and try new things. Just go out and make a difference. And enjoy. This is where they learn to grow up.”
8:26 a.m. parking lot outside Living/Learning, Building D
Celeste Torra, age 15, Somerville, Mass. Mixed feelings on her sister’s leaving for college: “I’m going to miss her a lot -- but I get my own room. And I think I’ll have a chance to become more independent.”
8:28 a.m. Chittenden-Buckham-Wills
8:35 a.m. Christie-Wright-Patterson
Sophomore Ashley Sorel and members of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority are giving a serious helping hand to families on Move-In Day. About 40 members of the sorority are fanned out around the Redstone campus. Why is she volunteering? "Everybody helped us last year. It kind of feels good to give back."
8:35 a.m. Living/Learning traffic circle outside Building C
8:59 a.m. Chittenden-Buckham-Wills
Deans Patricia Prelock and Luis Garcia share a laugh. The deans are among hundreds of faculty, staff and students helping with move-in day.
9:00 a.m. Harris/Millis
Diane and Jeff Dooley from Redding, Conn. take a well-deserved rest after moving their daughter Tara (whose twin is enrolling at Georgia Tech) into her room.
9:02 a.m. Chittenden Hall
New roommates, old friends. Caroline Connolly and Jenny Uhler say they've been "BFFs" since seventh grade. When the two new students from Marshfield, Mass. chose UVM, rooming together was an easy decision. Asked if they're worried they might get tired of each other, Jenny's dad Al chimes in, "No, they've tried that."
9:03 a.m. Christie Hall
Taking a break from move-in frenzy are Steve and Evelyn Schlosser with daughter, Holly, of Hanover, N.H. What’s the one thing Steve did in college he wouldn’t want his daughter to do? “Drive your Volkswagon beetle right across campus because you’re late for a basketball game.” … You got it, Dad.
9:25 Wills Hall
Fall of 1967, Richard Cate was a kid from East Calais, Vt., moving to the big city in Burlington for college and moving into 201 Wills Hall. The Class of 1971 alumnus is now a vice president at UVM and a stalwart hand on the annual move-in day crew. "It was a big deal when I came here," Cate reminisces. "A completely foreign world, unlike anything I'd ever seen. I grew up here."
9:35 a.m. Wing Hall
Nina Barrett plans to hang this collage of the two kids she babysits back home in New Milford, Conn. on the wall of her room in Wing Hall. It might only be day one of her UVM career, but she knows exactly what she wants to do: major in secondary education with a minor in mathematics.
9:43 a.m. University Heights
Jamie Waterman from Great Barrington, Mass., whose grandmother Bettina is helping him move in, says he was attracted to UVM for the forestry program.
9:53 a.m. Grasse Mounte lawn
The Student Alumni Association prepares to deliver a special welcome to students whose parent or parents are UVM graduates.
10:05 a.m. University Heights South
Car unloaded, piles ready to be moved upstairs, Allison Baginski of Charlotte, Vermont, takes a quick portrait of her daughters Rachel, new UVM student, and Jenna, 15. When Jenna is asked what she thinks it will be like having her sister out of the house, Rachel offers, "life changing." But Jenna's not so sure. "We're close by. I'll be able to visit her a lot," she says.
10:07 a.m. Living/Learning Building E, third floor
Rhea Lovell, film student moving into the Art of Photography Residential Learning Community, with her mom Kelly
10:14 a.m. Living/Learning Center courtyard
TREKKIES relaxing, all moved in after a rock-climbing trip in the Adirondacks. “We’re best buds,” they agree. “Plan A: a climbing trip Labor Day weekend.”
10:15 a.m. Living/Learning Center E Building
Priorities: Erik Milbauer has barely moved into E Building at Living/Learning and he's already ridden his longboard over to the Davis Center to buy some posters for his room—Scarface, Dark Side of the Moon, Grateful Dead—college classics every one. (He credits his dad for the the Dead influence.) Erik loves movies (hence the Scarface) and plans to explore that interest living in the Dead Poets Society Suite in L/L, where residents are united by their passion for literature and film.
10:27 a.m. Living/Learning Center
Paul Hollings with his son Gabrielle, from Medford, Mass. “It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Paul Hollings says of dropping his son off at school. “He’s gone from home, probably forever. He’s growing up, but he’s a good boy.” To his son he says, “You’re going to have lots of free time, it’s going to be liberating -- make sure you study!”
10:44 a.m. Bus stop, Main Street
On campus for a week — from Guangdong, China — first-years Ricardo Wu, Pink Li, and Edwin Cheng are majoring in business and chemistry — and looking forward to playing basketball and skiing.
11:03 a.m. CatCard Office, Davis Center
Rite of passage: Marcella Dent, a new grad student in natural resources, gets her UVM ID photo taken. A native of Alaska, she has no worries about Vermont winters. Summers are another matter. "Too hot," she says.
11:51 a.m. Mann Hall
Quiet moment on a hectic day: Roxy Rondeau, a new graduate student in the counseling program, checks messages on her phone after an orientation session. Roxy just moved to Burlington from Littleton, Colorado, and says she finds plenty in common between her old and new homes.
11:57 a.m. Outside Living/Learning Center
Provost David Rosowsky and Vice Provost of Student Affairs Annie Stevens make the rounds and check in with Lisa Schnell, interim dean of the Honors College.
12:03 p.m. Ready Hall, Trinity Campus
What's the strangest thing that you absolutely had to bring to college with you?
Harley Jane Pelletier, new student from Hopkinton, Massachusetts: "My penguin."
Why a penguin?
Harley: "It's just a thing with our family. My brother, who also goes to UVM, has one, too."
Harley's dad, Scott: "Her mom's a little whacky and bought a bunch of these penguins once."
Is that on the record?
Scott: "Yeah, sure."
12:09 p.m. Honors College
Welcome crew sophomores Sarah Socia and Nicole Walch having a great time moving boxes, rugs, guitars—and plastic drawers.
12:10 p.m. Trinity Campus
A new entry in the competition for coolest bike on campus: Eric Jentoft-Herr hoists his beloved single-speed on Trinity Campus. Eric is from Washington, D.C., will major in Econ, and echoes generations of UVM students when he says falling in love with Burlington was the clincher for enrolling at the university.
12:12 p.m. University Heights North
Zach Chavez and his mom, Jennifer Stern. He thinks his skateboard might be the most important item he brought from home in Rhode Island. His mom thinks it’s the box of brownies.
12:18 p.m University Heights North
With help from the welcome crew, Mario Carranza from Nazareth, Pa., unloads two road bikes, one for him and one for his daughter, Marissa, a first-year student in the Honors College. “She was nervous coming up here,” he says, “I’m going to be emotional going home." But first he’s going to get her bike loaded into her room — and then take a solo bike ride around town.
12:20 p.m. near Bailey/Howe Library
A team of UVM ROTC students pitched in on Move-in Day, helping first-year students get settled in in Jeanne Mance Hall beginning at 8 this morning. "We like to get out and help the school," says Cadet Battalion Commander Molly Kalaher (third from right). "We're part of the student body, so it’s nice to go out and help our peers and familiarize them with ROTC."
12:58 p.m. Living/Learning Center, Integrated Fine Arts Community
Hannah Hutchinson, Homosassa, Florida.
“I come from a small fishing village where nothing is happening. I wanted to live in the Integrated Fine Arts Community to be with people I can talk to and get excited about things with. I love UVM. It’s so open and active. This is a drastic change -- there’s so much to do.”
1:16 p.m. Living/Learning Center
Jamie Thorton, Cape Cod, Mass.
An animal studies major and aspiring veterinarian, Jamie was drawn to UVM for this “amazing program.” Her toughest moment so far: saying goodbye to her three dogs and two cats back home. Meanwhile, Jamie’s little sister, 4, is loving move-in day. “I got a lot of Vermont stuff,” she offers. “Even Catamount balloons.”
1:32 p.m. Living/Learning, Global Village Residential Learning Community
Charles-Louis Morand-Metivier, faculty director, La Maison Francaise, with his son Malo, 10 ½ months
Morand-Metivier, readying to welcome a new class of French speakers, has lived among students in La Maison Francaise since he arrived at UVM two years ago. “It’s very alive,” he says, “and it’s important to me to spend as much time with students as possible. Living amongst them, I feel it breaks the frontier between student and faculty, I’m still their professor but we’re all part of something. And I think it’s a good way to humanize professors, for them to see that we are people like anybody else.”
2:04 p.m. Davis Center
So why does a student from Nigeria elect to attend college at the University of Vermont?
"Peaceful, quiet, and good in engineering," says James Ile.
James and fellow student Abiola Ajaka, also of Nigeria, have been in Burlington all summer. Before classes get started on Monday, they relax with a game of pool in the Davis Center. James (right) won.
2:34 p.m. UVM Bookstore
While their big sister Brianna gets settled into her residence hall, brothers Shane and Justin Sullivan check out the vintage hockey jerseys at the UVM Bookstore. The brothers are big hockey fans, so they're looking forward to coming up from Worcester, Massachusetts, to see Brianna's varsity swim meets and also catch some hockey games as part of the bargain. They approve of their sister's college choice.
3 p.m. Converse Hall
Move-in is complete in one Converse Hall room.
3:10 p.m. outside Marsh-Austin-Tupper Residential Complex
Patrick Strobel, a sophomore from Pennsylvania, and Matt Ciminella, a first-year student from Buffalo, N.Y., finish up their seven-mile run in a light afternoon rain. Both are hoping to make the varsity cross-country team as walk-ons. Patrick was showing Matt a route that's familiar to UVM runners present and past — out Spear Street to Overlook Park and back on the path along the golf course.
3:21 p.m. Millis Hall
“Is there a trick to this?” says Catherine Todd, spinning the dials of her new mailbox yet again. It remains stuck. At the other end of the long row, Kimberlie Dusseldorp offers advice. “I asked the front desk lady; she’s taught me three times.” There is a long silence as the first-year students dial and redial. Finally, Todd’s opens with a satisfying click. “I got it!” she says with a smile. Persistence and experimentation: pursing two core values of higher education before classes even begin.
3:52 p.m. Redstone Campus.
First-year nursing major Isaiah Jones and his parents Gladys Jones and Norman Palmer fresh of a seven-hour drive from Philadelphia move Isaiah's belongings into Simpson Hall on Redstone Campus including his lightest and most prize possession: his Netflix account
4:10 p.m. Church Street
Tables are already filling up at Ken's Pizza and elsewhere downtown.
4:15 p.m. in front of Millis Hall
A circle of first-years students say hello around the circle, while families nearby say goodbye. There are some tears, but practical matters must be attended to. “Did everyone remember their CAT card?” the RA calls out as the students file back inside.
4:29 p.m. University Heights North
First-year students need to learn the rules on the first day of college. But they also consider deep questions with their new RA, Kael Alberghini. “How are you going to achieve your hopes this year?” he asks. And the conversation begins.