Congrats!

Welcome to Indiana University!  You did it.  You are a HOOSIER!

As you sink into this new identity, these first few weeks might feel a bit surreal to you.  It’s the culmination many dreams to get you to this point–graduating from high school, moving out from home and launching out on your own!

Some of you might be feeling the highest anticipation of all the excitement college has to offer–meeting new people, experiences, and opportunities!  Others might be feeling the pit of homesickness, loneliness, and worried if you made the right choice–it all feels so…new.  We would be willing to wager that the vast majority fall somewhere in the middle–a healthy dose of excitement mixed with some hesitancy, questions, and fear of what’s next.

We’ve all be there, trust us!  Take a deep breath.  We’ve not only survived this transition of coming to college, we’ve found our way to thrive in it.  And we want to share with you some of our own best tips, takeaways, and advice as you navigate into and through your own new.

This book was written especially for you as the final class project of the Connection, Engagement & The College Experience course (EDUC-X 152).  It’s a class that was created for first year exploratory students to help with this process of stepping out on one’s own, figuring out who you are, and craft your college experience according to your goals.

As we reflected on our own transition from high school life to college, we wanted to share with you what we learned along the way–how we learned to connect to one another, engage with our learning, and get involved with campus life. We didn’t have a guide like this when we started, but wish we would have, so, we decided to create one ourselves! We sincerely hope that you will take a measure of what we learned and apply it to your life as you navigate your own college experience.

Trust the process.

You can do it.

You aren’t alone.

Let’s get started, together!