“WELCOME TO BEHREND!"

That’s Mikayla MacQuarrie, a resident assistant in Trippe Hall. The sign on her door reads “RA MikJagger.”

The resident assistant was setting the tone for new students at Penn State Behrend. She greeted them in the parking lot, dancing, singing, asking, “Where are you from?” She carried their boxes, laundry bags and totes — so many totes — up to their new rooms.

“I remember my first year at college,” she said. “I was so nervous. I didn’t know what to expect.”

As she lifted one end of a rolled-up carpet, she said, “I want to make things a little bit easier for these students. I want to be a source of support for them.”

Nearly 1,000 new and transfer students joined the Behrend community this week. Most are living on campus. More than 100 upper-division students, including the resident assistants, met them in the parking lots.

“It’s fun,” said Farran Parker. “You get to meet everyone. It shows them what Behrend is all about.”

Josiah Burkett carried boxes into Ohio Hall. He’s a commuter student, but he still wanted to help with the move-in process.

“This is their first real experience at Behrend,” he said. “I want to make it as good as it can be. If I can take a box of stuff up to their room for them and talk to them for a few minutes and make them a little more comfortable about being here, why wouldn’t I do that?”