By Alice Xu, ’21. Photo by Alice Xu. Pictured: Charlie Ji, ’20.

August 25th, the last Sunday before preseason practice, was the move-in day for all new and returning upper schoolers living at LCA North Campus. Dorm council members arrived at the dorm a few days earlier to prepare to welcome this year’s residents. Preparation included a range of small tasks from cleaning up tables in common areas, designing and putting up name tags on room doors (Thank you Mr. Lee and Stella Feng!), to moving sofas around in lounges to create homey spaces. Everyone in the dorm joined and prepared for the move-in on August 25th.

Many on the LCA main campus may not know this, but the dorm has made a lot of changes this upcoming year. Both the boys’ and girls’ hallways have their own lounges with comfortable sofas and TV so that students can relax and hang out with their friends there. There’s also an air hockey table for them downstairs. The dorms also have more double rooms this year and new furniture for some rooms. Dr. Winsor, Ms. Trojesen, and Mr. Allen had been working on all those things during the summer so that we students can have the same comforts in the dorm that we have at home. They threw away all the old furniture and ordered new furniture for some rooms. The dorm was cleaned inside and out. Another thing that’s new start this year is that the dorm has seasonal boarders from the main campus. Seasonal boarding means that the student only lives at the North Campus during a specific sport season: either fall, winter, or spring. This helps those local students who live far away and also saves them from traveling. There’s also a special service for laundry this year. Dr.Winsor found a professional laundry service company that will do the laundry for dorm students. All of these changes that happened at the dorm made the dorm well prepared for the upcoming school year.

The move-in day on Sunday started at 1 pm. Everyone was excited about welcoming new and returning students and their parents. All faculty and dorm councilors helped students to get settled and feel at home. This is the first year that dorm students registered at the dorm. In years before, we had to go to the Cross Center and come back to the dorm afterward. Special thanks to Dr. Winsor and Ms. Torjesen, who made this process smoother this year. This year we did not have to leave North Campus so that we could feel settled and at home. After a long day of meeting with nurses, laundry service and IT officers, students could finally get their photos taken and go to their rooms to begin feeling at home. Move-in day was a huge success, all students get their registration done and they are getting ready to start their life at LCA North Campus.

LCA hopes that all dorm students settle in quickly. We are looking forward to a brand new school year, and we hope that all dorm students view the dorm as their home.