Amidst the whirlwind of luggage carts and cars zooming in and out with dorm necessities for Move-in Day at California State University, Stanislaus, first year student and Costa Mesa native Selena Hernandez was heading out to explore Turlock for the very first time.

“My family and I are going to look around and see what’s around here,” said Hernandez. “We’ve never visited Turlock before.”

Hernandez said that she ultimately decided to attend CSU Stanislaus for her freshman year of college because she was intrigued at how the environment around the campus differed from the environment she was used to at home.

Hernandez said that she plans to major in Child Development and she is already scheduled to take psychology, English, math and music classes for the fall semester. She said that her major academic goal for the year is to pass all of her classes.

 “I’m really looking forward to meeting new people in the dorms and learning new things,” said Hernandez. “I just want to experience that college lifestyle.”

Hernandez was just one of the approximately 600 students who moved in throughout the course of the day on Friday, leaving only a few of the 690 residential housing spots at the university still vacant.

“We love Move-in Day,” said Assistant Director of Housing and Residential Life Rebekah Gregory. “It’s a crazy, busy, exciting day for us. Our staff starts about 5:30 in the morning and throughout the course of the day we have 600 people moving onto campus. It’s fun for us to help them and to meet the parents.”

Unfilled dorm beds will most likely be filled, however, as Gregory said that Housing and Residential Life already has a waiting list for students seeking on-campus housing for the 2015-16 school year.

“That’s a good thing because it means we’re doing better in what we’re offering and people are staying in the dorms longer,” said Gregory. “We do have people who stay in the dorms for four years.”

Move-in Day was nothing new for second year student Javier Jacuinde from Porterille, who gladly accepted the help of multiple dorm staff on Friday as he moved into his new room.

“I chose to attend CSU Stanislaus because Turlock is very similar to Porterville,” said Jacuinde. “Also, it’s a small campus, so it makes it easier for me to make more friends, especially a closer group of friends.

“The dorms are also great because of all of the help resident assistants and peer academic leaders offer. They’ve helped me with my schedule and they’ve taught me new and better ways to manage my money and time,” added Jacuinde.

Jacuinde said that he is majoring in Criminal Justice and said that one of his academic goals for the year is to attain a higher grade point average.

First year student and Delano native Noel Burrell was surrounded by family members on Friday as she also moved into her new dorm.

“This is a nice campus and the area around it seems very much like home,” said Burrell. “I look forward to living in the dorms for the community activities.”

Burrell said that she has a busy schedule filled with English, math, history, and psychology classes. However, she is most looking forward to when she can take science classes as she plans to major in Kinesiology.

Overall, the responsibility of housing and residential life, resident assistants and peer academic leaders is to ensure that each student feels safe and at home on campus, according to Gregory.

 “In housing, we take that part of it very serious, and that’s why we train our RAs and PALs the way we do, because we don’t want the students feeling lonely for very long,” said Gregory. “We want them to integrate quickly and find people who are a lot like them.

“It’s our priority to make the students quickly feel like they belong on this campus, and that’s why Move-in Day is an exciting time for us,” continued Gregory.