2017年8月，bck体育官网开设了第一个宿舍, it was a milestone in the campus’ 53-year history. Four years later, 数百名学生至少在拥有250个床位的果园大厅里住过一段时间, but at least half a dozen have resided there since it opened.
For them, the convenience, the friendships formed, 和独立性使他们的住宿经历成为他们在白兰地酒时代的标志.
自Orchard Hall开放以来，住在这里的三名学生来自不同的地方:Nicole DiMauro来自特拉华县, where the campus is located; Jemimah Mwaba is from the state of Delaware; and Keiaisha Jackson is from South Carolina. For DiMauro and Mwaba, staying relatively close to home was a plus, 而杰克逊则在寻找一段能让她进入一个新领域的大学经历.
“I wanted to stay in state and I wanted to be close to home, but I didn’t want to commute,” DiMauro said. 所以当我听说Brandywine要建一个学生宿舍时，我就觉得，“哦，那太好了。. They have everything that I need."
Nicole DiMauro, who has lived in Orchard Hall for four years, 我既想住得离家近一点，又想住在校园里方便.
“Brandywine was far enough for me, 但它也足够近，如果我想的话，周末也可以回家,” Mwaba said.
For Jackson, her journey to Brandywine was a little more serendipitous. She was interested in Penn State and was considering Abington, which also opened a residence hall in 2017. 当阿宾顿的宿舍住满后，杰克逊被转到附近的白兰地酒校区.
“宾夕法尼亚离我足够远，我觉得我要去探索这个国家的另一个地方，有点超出我的舒适区,” Jackson said. 虽然她原本计划过渡到大学公园的“大大学的经验,杰克逊最终决定在白兰地酒学院完成她的学位——因为她的教授们，她决定留下来, the research and internship opportunities, and the connections she made.
每个学生都说，从第一学期开始，她就感到受到欢迎，并建立了友谊.
“I was nervous and excited coming in,” DiMauro said. “but it really surprised me how fast you build a community of friends. 在第一个周末，我们有一群人一起出去玩. 我们周四搬进来，周日在我房间举办电影之夜. 我认为我们能够如此迅速地与同楼层的人建立起一个社区是不可思议的.”
“I still remember my first year,” Mwaba said. “I feel like that was the most welcoming welcome I've ever experienced. 我想也可能是因为大厅是新的，所以每个人都很兴奋. 我还喜欢它不是很大，你能认出楼里的每个人.”
杰克逊也很感激她作为一年级学生所受到的热情欢迎.
“我们第一年的助教们做得很好，确保每个人都感到舒适，真的感觉每个人都在同一个赛场上,” she said. “So, that was very comforting. 在前几个学期，我喜欢的另一件事是参加宿舍的活动，与其他学生真正交流.”
迪莫罗和姆瓦巴把他们的校园经历更进一步，成为了宿舍助理. For them, 成为RA的一个关键动机是为即将到来的学生提供与他们收到的相同的欢迎体验.
“我喜欢这份工作的每一点，”迪莫罗说，她是第二年担任助理助理. “I love the programs. 第一年我没怎么参与，但在大二的时候我的助理助理一直在场. 我真的很尊敬他，宿舍生活办公室改变了我对这里生活的看法. I started going to programs, 我参加了一个特别的项目，它真的帮助我建立了信心. I wanted to do the same for other residents.”
Mwaba became a resident assistant (RA) this past January. 她从一开始就对这个职位感兴趣，但在头两年，她还积极参与了其他校园活动.
“As my workload and my commitments started to go down, I felt like, ‘Oh, now I have time to do this, now I can be an RA,’" she said. “I wanted to be a person for someone else to be like, ‘Oh yeah, I had such a warm welcome when I came to Penn State,’ so that's why I wanted to be an RA.”
Elizabeth Kearns, director of housing and food services for Brandywine and Abington, has seen the positive changes Orchard Hall brought to the campus, 与此同时开放的新学生会包括食堂.
“果园大厅是为我们的学生提供不同服务的又一步，”她说. “It creates another dimension for Brandywine that wasn’t there before, 如果没有住房，一些从白兰地酒学院毕业的学生不会选择我们的校园.”
With the residence hall and Student Union, Kearns said “it seems that now students linger more, they hang out together, there’s a lot of socializing in a normal year. They’re comfortable. 他们觉得这里就像家一样，即使是那些使用我们食堂的通勤学生. 白兰地酒一直有一种社区意识，但宿舍楼加深了这种感觉.”
Despite the occasional hiccup — a less-than-ideal roommate, 例如，学生们全心全意地鼓励其他人体验bck体育官网.
“我肯定地认为，在bck体育官网应该是一种体验，许多人一生中至少应该尝试一次,” Mwaba added. “Get out of your house and live with someone else. Try that for a semester, a year. I'm glad that all my experiences with a roommate have been positive, 因为我真的很擅长以这种方式驾驭个性和对话."
“我真的很高兴我决定冒险搬到这里，”杰克逊说. “我觉得把自己放在那里，真正尝试建立联系，会让你走得很远. And Orchard Hall has really provided a lot of opportunities to do that.
“我担心在一个小校园里会太沉闷，我会感到无聊, 但果园大厅挺过来了，我得以与那里的居民建立联系，他们成了我最好的朋友. And I just really love the communal atmosphere here.”
