JMU
Unlike many of the testimonies I have heard from people around campus, JMU was not an immediate fit for me. Growing up in Northern Virginia, it had always been on my radar as a place where I knew a lot of people went. So, when it was time for me to start touring colleges, James Madison made the list along with Virginia Tech, UVA, and William & Mary. When I first toured the school, all I could see was the daunting size, the loud highway bisecting the two sides of campus, and the other twenty-four thousand students who seemed to enthusiastically know they belonged here. It wasn’t until summer orientation where we came for a day and went through the motions of being a student that I finally got it. Not only is the community something that warms my heart here (the fact that Dukes really do hold doors!), but JMU’s campus itself has become a safe haven for me. I know that it was the right choice for me to start shaping the first version of my adult self.
