The View From Here
By Kelly Stone
Associate Dean for Institutional Equity and College Chaplain, Macalester College
and Covenantal Partner with MPUC
As the calendar turns to August, Macalester staff and faculty hasten preparations in anticipation of the 560ish new students the college will welcome to campus this fall. Students begin to trickle in for fall sports, international students orientation, and student leader training as early as mid-August. By the time first-year move-in day arrives – August 26 –campus is already bustling!
As Chaplain, I channel as much non-anxious presence as possible on move-in day. Directing traffic on Summit Avenue, I offer students, parents/guardians and loved ones clear information about immediate next steps. Park here. Unload there. Volunteer movers will take your items to your room. I greet our first years, learn their names and notice their bounding energy, hesitant reservations and sometimes tearful glances. Noticing is part of my ministry. Our interactions are brief and fleeting; but my noticing and wondering lingers long after move-in day.
Macalester students arrive in many different ways with many different things. Some students arrive as solo travelers fresh from the airport; donning a backpack and a singular suitcase. While others arrive with a car-full(s) of carefully packed items to outfit their new home. This “stuff” can obscure what I have learned in my 18 years of college chaplaincy…that the most important thing they bring is themselves. Their questions, their curiosities, their anger/joy, their yearning for self-discovery…even their resistance to change. While these things are not deposited on the sidewalk - like the indomitable dorm fridge – they arrive along with each student, just the same.
In the midst of move-in day chaos, I get one precious moment with new students. Standing on the sidewalk with uncertainty all around them; I look them in the eye, introduce myself and tell them how very glad we are that they have arrived. My sacred duty is to remind them they are beloved and welcome. I hope you’ll join me in this simple, yet profound ministry as students find their way off campus and into our congregation!