NSU move-in weekend marks new chapter for first-year students and families

For incoming first-year student Anna Baggett of Haughton, the transition began Thursday when she moved into University Place a day early as a member of the President’s Leadership Program.

Baggett, who plans to study kinesiology, said she is excited about starting college but also feeling some stress as she prepares for the transition.

“I am super excited and stressed because I just want to get it all in and decorate my room and get a routine going,” Baggett said.

Baggett plans to become involved on campus through the President’s Leadership Program and Baptist Collegiate Ministry. She is also considering sorority recruitment and said she is looking forward to Demon Days activities and meeting professors and other students in her major.

She said her decision to attend Northwestern State was influenced by the connections she made during her first visit to campus.

“I chose NSU because from the first time I came on campus, everyone was trying to get to know me and wanted to do things that were best for me and just help me get to where I want to be in the future,” she said.

For Baggett’s mother, Stephanie Baggett, move-in day marks the end of months of preparation and anticipation.

“It’s a lot. It’s a lot of emotions, it’s a lot of work, but it’s nice,” she said. “The anxiousness of everything over the past four or five months since she graduated high school. It’s like it’s all here. It’s finally here and time to get her moved in.”

Stephanie Baggett said the family’s first visit to Northwestern State helped ease concerns about the transition.

“From the first time that we visited NSU, everyone has been so welcoming and engaging,” she said. “It made the feeling so much easier, like just a comfort in knowing that this is where she is supposed to be.”

As her daughter begins college, Stephanie Baggett said she is looking forward to watching her grow into adulthood.

“I’m just proud of the person that she has become,” she said. “It’s been a journey and just a wonderful 18 years of getting to see her grow into the young lady that she is, and so it is just a pleasure to get to watch her now grow into adulthood and for us to get to see what is next for her.”