There’s a certain magic in the air when students return to campus. Suddenly, Davis & Elkins College comes alive — footsteps echo across sidewalks, laughter spills from residence halls, and the familiar beehive of energy swirls through the mountains once more.

The 121st academic year is underway, and students have traveled from across town, across the country, and even across the globe to begin–or continue–their journey. New friendships are forming, old ones are rekindling, and the campus feels whole again.

I asked one of our resident assistants if he was glad to be back. With a grin, he answered, “It’s good to be home.” Those words stuck with me. For many students across the nation, “college” can feel like a vast, impersonal place. But here, home is exactly the right word. D&E is not about transactions — a degree in exchange for years of study — but about transformation. Over four years, students grow in wisdom, confidence, and purpose. Like their childhood homes, our College becomes a place that shapes and anchors them for the future.

Home is not really about bricks and mortar. It is the smell of fresh-cut grass on the front lawn, the sound of voices that know you by name, the peace that settles in when you realize you belong. It is that deep sense of being known and loved. Every day at D&E, that realization is the homecoming we strive for our students to experience.

This is why our capital campaign to create the Freshmen Village at Davis & Elkins College is called Creating Home. Of course, it involves building and improving residence halls–but it’s about more than that. It is about creating a place where a teenager arrives full of questions and leaves as a graduate ready to embrace life’s call. Like a caterpillar inside its chrysalis, the transformation is not always easy, but it is always miraculous. And when the butterfly emerges, the result is beautiful to behold.

As I begin my tenth year as President of this remarkable College, I, too, feel the tug of home. My journey to these mountains has been a gift beyond measure, giving me the chance to walk beside our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. For the past nine years, I have shared these reflections weekly throughout each semester. Beginning with this edition, Reflecting Along the Journey will become a monthly column. Beginning in October, you will see a new format that will combine both this column and updated news that captures the spirit of campus life arriving in your inbox.

And so, the students are home. They awaken each morning to opportunities and discoveries waiting just beyond their doors. Their journeys are unfolding, their lives are being shaped, and their futures are taking form. Davis & Elkins remains the place where dreams are nurtured, friendships deepen, and transformation happens.

The journey continues…