Emotions and pride overflow as new USC Dornsife students transition from family homes to on-campus life
Alana Fesili knew it would be tough to leave her family behind when she moved into USC’s Birnkrant Residential College this week — so she brought them along with her.
Fifteen members of her family, including her mom, dad, five siblings, grandparents and cousins, left their homes in Oceanside, California, at 5 a.m. on Monday to caravan to the University Park Campus and help Fesili settle in.
“I always feel my family’s love,” says Fesili, a sociology major. “Their support is just amazing. I didn’t want to be too far, but I wanted to be far enough to where I could learn and grow on my own.”
Fesili is among the 8,243 first-year, returning, transfer and graduate students making themselves at home in USC’s residential colleges during move-in week, which concluded Wednesday.
As families focused on checking out bins and dollies and unloading suitcases and duffle bags from their vehicles, emotions never seemed far from the surface.
“I don’t want anyone to see my tears,” says Absalom Fesili, Alana’s dad. “She worked so hard in high school and played basketball but was so focused on her academics. This is the school she’s always wanted to go to.”
First year student Katie Rube has a friendly face nearby: Her brother Charlie is a USC junior.
Meanwhile, first-year student Katie Rube is happy to have her older brother starting his junior year at USC as she begins her first as a sociology major.
“I’ve been on campus a lot to visit my brother, and I realized I didn’t want to leave. That was a good sign,” she says.
The siblings from Westchester, New York, are close and say they always have each other’s back.
“I always hoped she’d come here,” says Charlie Rube, 21, a junior at the USC Thornton School of Music. “It’s my first choice for her and I did a lot of selling of the school, so it all has to go well. I think it will.”
For USC Dornsife alumna Sally Friedewald, who earned a psychobiology degree in 1993, move-in week felt like déjà vu as she moved her 18-year-old daughter, Ellie, from their home in Chicago into Birnkrant.
“It’s so exciting and I feel like I’m reliving college through her eyes,” she said. “I wanted her to go wherever she wanted, but now that she’s here, it’s really fun for me to see and to be back on campus.”
As they organized her room, their daughter, a human biology major, reflected on the enormity of the occasion.
“I’m sad leaving them, but I’m an independent type so I’m also very excited to be on my own,” she said. “And I love L.A.”