Confession: I love moving.
I can sense the collective groan some of you may have just made. But it’s true. I actually like wrapping up all of my breakables in sheets of newspaper. I like cleaning all the nooks and crannies of my space knowing it’s ready for someone else. And I really like setting up my new living space, finding the perfect (read: aesthetic) way to organize my belongings.
Moving, to me, is an exercise in reflection — on the memories made in the space I’m leaving — and inspiration — of imagining what experiences I’ll have in my new home. As an undergrad student at the U of A, I got my moving fix every four to eight months: residence, family home, residence, family home, ad infinitum. And while it’s been almost a decade since I’ve been in this cycle, August always brings an intense nostalgia of preparing for a new year in a new place. It’s part of the reason I volunteer for Residence Move In Day, which happens on Augustana Campus, Campus Saint-Jean and North Campus annually. In 2025, it took place over the course of three days in late August.
Having volunteered for multiple years now, I’ve found that volunteering does more than just satiate my desire to relive my university days.
Over the course of two days (August 25 and 27), 1,900 students moved in on North Campus, with over 1,300 of them being in their first-year. (Photos: Jason Franson)
It’s a chance to immerse myself in the start-of-year hype
There really isn’t anything quite like Move-In Day. While there are students on our campuses in the summer, move-in is the first big event of the academic year that brings students and the sense of fervent anticipation to campus.
Students come to the U of A from all over the world, some travelling thousands of kilometres and some within city limits. Lives are packed into backseats of cars, taxi cab trunks and suitcases – all for the same shared purpose. In this way, it’s hard to not feel like you’re at the centre of something special.
By volunteering at move-in, I get to feel that sense of potential I once felt during my own university years: What will my year be like? How will I grow? What will I learn? How will I change as a person?
Résidence Saint-Jean decorated to welcome over 40 students moving in on August 25. (Photos: Karen Whitta)
It gives a new perspective on my own work
Much of my work now, as the partner, communications and marketing for Augustana, is done at a desk in an administrative office. This means I don’t often engage with students directly. Despite the fact that I spent hours of my time this summer planning communications pieces to prepare our new students for the year, my connection to them is often at arms length.
Move-In Day is an opportunity to reconnect with the purpose of my work. Most of the students that moved in at Augustana were the students I had sent emails to over the summer, and I got to know a little more about them as people — from what program they were in to where they were coming to campus from to the questions they had (a perfect note to help inform my future communications efforts).
Engaging with students and helping them start their time on campus has made me reconnect with the why we’re all here: to provide students with an education and to support them along the way.
Staff and volunteers preparing for Move In Day at (left to right) Augustana Campus, North Campus, Campus Saint-Jean. (Photos: Jason Franson and Karen Whitta)
I get a behind-the-scenes look at a university process
The U of A is pretty large. Even at one of our smaller campuses like Augustana Campus, there’s always so much going on that it’s sometimes difficult to get a sense of how our university functions, let alone the vast specialized knowledge it takes to do just that.
For me, Move-In Day is one day to show up and help out. But our residence colleagues prepare for months, assigning students to rooms, answering a deluge of questions, organizing more than 100 volunteers and training hundreds more of residence staff to support students during the year. Thousands of collective hours are spent preparing for these three days each year.
Days like move-in give you a closer look into some of this work, plus an opportunity to see colleagues in action. We have so much star power at the U of A, and to see people be good at what they do is kind of amazing. The best part: you get to meet and connect with all the people doing this work and put a face to all this effort.
A family embracing in one of the dorm rooms at Augustana Campus during Move-In Day. After posting this photo to Instagram, the family reached out to share how touched that such “a big moment” for their family was captured. (Photo: Jason Franson)
I can be part of something bigger
Many students who move into our residences are leaving their homes for the first time. Perhaps they’re accompanied by loved ones. Perhaps they show up on their own. Each time, they start a new stage of their life.
This year, I helped direct cars filled with students and their belongings as they lined up outside Augustana’s Hoyme Complex. I got to assist parents and students who were lost and didn’t know where to go. I got to be a smiling face welcoming them to the U of A.
In the grand scheme of what happens on the day (or even in general at the university), my role was a small one. Still, I was able to share in someone else’s momentous occasion. They might not remember our conversation or that we talked. But, hopefully, my time volunteering has helped make the start of their year a little bit easier, a little bit kinder.
But also, yes, I still like moving.
See you at Move-In Day 2026!
