As new students and their guests pulled up to their dorm halls, they were greeted by upperclassmen chanting, “Welcome, welcome, welcome to PLNU. We are here to greet you; we are your welcome crew!” Point Loma Nazarene University’s freshmen class of 2025 arrived at their new home for the next four years on Aug. 26.
Some students said they arrived overwhelmed and anxious, while others were excited to finally leave high school behind and enter into a new season of higher education. Regardless of how students felt, they stepped into this new adventure together. To kick off, PLNU hosted a five-day orientation called Welcome Week.
PLNU’s inaugural Welcome Week took place in 2023, and since then, the school has worked hard to ensure that every class of freshmen feels welcome. According to Kathy Lee, director of student experience, PLNU designed Welcome Week so that students can feel a sense of belonging at the school.
“We want to make sure that students feel that they are truly being oriented to our campus — getting to know where things are through campus tours, getting to learn about the resources on campus, getting to meet various staff, faculty and student leaders (the people that will help support them on their journey here),” Lee said in an email interview. “We want our students to feel empowered about the stories that they hold and bring to this place and to know that they shape who we are as PLNU by bringing their whole selves to the table of our community and integrating into this place.”
This year’s Welcome Week began on move-in day and continued with events such as a communal dinner down Caf Lane, a trip to SeaWorld and a concert featuring Community Pool, Telephone Friends and Jordy Searcy.
But for Chelsea Bedford, a first-year visual arts major, the event that stood out to her the most was the sand ceremony at the Greek Amphitheater.
Each year, every member of the freshman class receives a vial of sand that they pour into a large aquarium-like tank. At the end of a student’s four years at PLNU, they’ll receive a vial of sand to keep, symbolizing that what you pour into school, you take into the real world.
“It was really cool how [all of the freshmen] were there and we all got to contribute by adding a little bit [of sand],” Bedford said.
For Autumn Smith, a first-year biology major, a different service at the Greek stood out to her — the covenant ceremony. Featuring worship from PLNU’s worship arts team and a message from PLNU President Kerry Fulcher, it was the closing ceremony before parents went home.
“Worship is the way I, in a sense, feel closest to God,” Smith said. “That was super powerful for me, and it was nice to experience that with my parents as well. To know that, even in saying goodbye to them, there was something almost like a security about it, knowing that we’re in good hands and I was not only making a commitment to the school but the school was making a commitment to me to invest in my academic and spiritual growth.”
The week ended with PLNU’s yearly Golden Hour Concert. Telephone Friends returned for their second year, playing their hit songs as the sun set behind the Greek.
“Because it’s a Christian community, there’s not a whole lot of huge party scenes,” Bedford said. “But everyone [was] still there to have a great time. Everyone’s still partying; everyone’s still dancing.”
Lee said that Welcome Week will continue in the future, evolving in little ways for years to come.
“We definitely feel like we’ve started to find a sweet spot of the balance of scheduling free time with programmed events and hope to keep a lot of what we have for next year,” Lee said. “The mission of PLNU’s Welcome Week will always remain the same — to cultivate a deeper sense of belonging, helping our new students feel prepared and ready for the new year ahead and making sure our students know the tools they have available to them to grow and thrive during their time here at PLNU.”
