First-years adjust to campus life

Many students who go home on the weekends often do so for a variety of reasons, such as visiting friends or family. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GAVIN JACKSON | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Steve Schirra

During her freshman year, sophomore interior design major Tessa Farese went home almost every weekend, but this year, she hardly goes home at all.

“I want to be able to not depend on my parents, like wean myself,” she said.

Farese is not alone. Many students find themselves going home often in their first year, but less as they get older.

Brian Collins, residence hall director of Manchester and Fletcher halls, said students usually become more involved on campus the longer they are enrolled.

“The more connected you are to campus and Kent State culture, the more likely you are to remain here all four years,” Collins said.

Students who go home and why

Students who go home on the weekends often do so for a variety of reasons.

“I don’t like staying here because I don’t like it through the week,” said Ben Adams, a freshman finance major. “I can’t even imagine the weekend. I just like home better.”

Adams will be transferring to the Tuscarawas campus, where he can easily drive from his home.

“It’s less stressful,” he said.

Stress seems to be a major factor that motivates students to return home. Home can be a place where students leave the pressures of campus life behind.

Allison Avery, senior art education major, said she likes to go home about once a month to “escape” the stresses of college. When she was a freshman, she said she hardly went home and really enjoyed her college experience.

Students also said they go home to visit girlfriends or boyfriends, to do laundry or just to see their families.

Students who stay and why

Stephanie Guertin, freshman aeronautical engineering major, stays at Kent State most weekends. However, she said she wishes she could go home more often.

“I don’t go home as much as I want because I don’t have my car here and my parents can’t come get me as much as I would like them to,” she said.

For others, such as international students, distance from home keeps them at Kent State.

However, many students like spending time at Kent State and enjoy being on their own.

“I love it,” said Justin King, a freshman architecture major. “I like being far from home and making my own decisions. I probably will only go home twice a semester.”

Guertin said she feels she is getting to experience college life and being on her own by staying on the weekends. She thinks students shouldn’t go home too often.

“They shouldn’t because they’re losing the experience that a lot of us are having and they’re not becoming as independent,” Guertin said.

Contact news correspondents Kiera Manion-Fischer at [email protected] and Samantha Tosado at [email protected].