Move-in day at boarding school is an exciting milestone. It is the day students finally see their dorm room, meet the roommate who may become a big part of their boarding school experience, and begin settling in after a summer of anticipation.
At a small boarding school like Oak Hill Academy, however, move-in day is about much more than unpacking boxes. It is the first opportunity for students and families to begin building the relationships that will make the school year successful.
Throughout the day, students and families meet the faculty, residential staff, coaches, administrators, and other members of the Oak Hill community who will know their student by name, support them through challenges, celebrate their successes, and become familiar faces throughout the year.
For families, it is also the beginning of an important partnership. We want you to put a face and a voice to the names of the people who will be caring for and working with your student. For students, it is the first step toward building friendships, becoming comfortable in their new home, and discovering the community they will be part of throughout the school year.
So, how do we turn move-in day into more than simply moving in?
We use the day to build excitement, create connections, and help every student and family feel that they belong at Oak Hill.
Here’s what move-in weekend looks like, hour by hour, as students begin their journey on The Hill.
Why Oak Hill Has Two Move-In Days
With almost 45% of our students coming from outside the United States, and many of our domestic students traveling from across the country, move-in day looks a little different at Oak Hill Academy.
Rather than bringing everyone to campus at once, we spread move-in across Saturday and Sunday. This gives families a more relaxed arrival experience and allows us to focus on welcoming students and building connections rather than managing a single, hectic arrival day.
Saturday is dedicated to returning families and new international students. Many of our international families travel to Oak Hill together, making their arrival time more predictable. Some families also choose to arrive in the area a day or two early, giving themselves time to adjust to the time zone, explore the region, and enjoy some quality family time before the school year begins.
For families traveling to Oak Hill, the Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the experience. Nearby towns such as West Jefferson, North Carolina, offer a wonderful place to slow down before the excitement of move-in day. Families can enjoy local restaurants, scenic mountain views, outdoor adventures, shopping, galleries, and boutique accommodations, all within a beautiful vacation destination.
That extra time can be especially valuable for families sending a student to boarding school for the first time. Instead of arriving stressed and immediately rushing through a long list of tasks, families can turn the days before move-in into a final opportunity to enjoy time together.
Then, on Saturday, the focus shifts to Oak Hill.
Students reconnect with friends they haven’t seen all summer. New international students begin meeting their classmates and the adults who will support them throughout the year. Families begin putting names to faces, asking questions, and becoming familiar with the community that will become their student’s home away from home.
By the time Sunday arrives for our new domestic students, the campus is already beginning to come alive.
And that is exactly what we want move-in day to feel like: not simply an arrival, but the beginning of belonging.
Saturday: Returning Students and New International Families
1:00 a.m.–Noon: Welcome Lunch in the Dining Hall
Saturday move-in begins with one of the simplest, and most important, parts of the day: bringing everyone together around the table.
From 11:00 a.m. to noon, returning families and our new international families are invited to lunch in the Dining Hall. It is a chance to grab a plate, take a breath after traveling, and begin reconnecting with the Oak Hill community.
And this year, families will have something new to experience.
We are excited to welcome NexDine Hospitality as Oak Hill Academy’s new dining service partner. Move-in day will be the first opportunity for many families to see the improvements taking place in our Dining Hall, including new digital signage, updated service stations, and enhancements to the overall dining experience.
Most importantly, we believe families will notice the difference in the food itself.
For a boarding school, the Dining Hall is much more than a place to eat. It is one of the central gathering places on campus. Students share meals with friends, catch up after classes, celebrate birthdays and special occasions, and develop the everyday relationships that make a boarding school feel like home.
That makes lunch an especially fitting way to begin move-in day.
For returning students, it is a first chance to reconnect with friends and familiar adults. For new international students and their families, it is an opportunity to begin meeting the people who will quickly become part of their Oak Hill experience.
And for parents, it is another chance to put faces to names and begin the partnership that is so important to us.
Come hungry, come excited, and come ready to reconnect. The first meal of the new school year is also the first taste of the community we’re building together.
Noon–1:00 p.m.: Welcome to Oak Hill Academy in Fletcher Chapel
Lunch flows directly into one of the most meaningful traditions of move-in day: our Welcome to Oak Hill Academy meeting in Fletcher Chapel.
This gathering brings together students, parents, faculty, and staff and intentionally mirrors the daily homeroom tradition that is such an important part of life at Oak Hill. For families, it offers an early glimpse into what a typical morning on The Hill looks and feels like, and gives students their first opportunity to experience the sense of community that defines the school day.
The program begins with an address from Oak Hill Academy President Micah Kurtz, who sets the tone for the year ahead. He highlights our expectations for students, introduces new priorities and points of emphasis, and shares developments in the program that will shape the coming school year.
It is more than a welcome speech. It is an opportunity to establish a shared understanding of who we are, what we expect, and what we hope to accomplish together.
Following the President’s address, administrators from across the school introduce themselves and explain how their areas contribute to the Oak Hill mission. Academic leadership, student life, residential life, athletics, and other areas of the school all play important roles in supporting our students.
For parents, this is an especially valuable part of the day.
You may have received emails from members of our staff throughout the summer. You may have heard names during the admissions process or while completing enrollment forms. Now, you get to put a face and a voice to those names.
These are the people your student will come to know during the year, the people they will turn to with questions, depend on when they need support, learn from, and ultimately form meaningful relationships with.
For our new families, this gathering is often the moment when Oak Hill begins to feel less like a school your student is attending and more like a community your family is joining.
And that is exactly how we want the year to begin.
1:00–3:00 p.m.: Check-In, Move-In, and Making Connections
After the Welcome to Oak Hill gathering, the campus shifts into motion.
We divide our move-in families into two groups, allowing one group to begin the check-in process while the other heads to the dorms to start unpacking and settling in. The groups then switch, giving every family time for both parts of the afternoon.
Check-In: More Than Checking Boxes
Check-in is an important administrative step, but we don’t want it to feel like a trip through a paperwork assembly line.
Families move through the various areas of check-in, confirming that enrollment paperwork, medical authorizations, and other required forms are complete. Along the way, they meet members of the administrative team who will be part of their student’s Oak Hill experience.
We intentionally take our time.
At each stop, we encourage questions and personal conversations rather than simply collecting signatures and checking boxes. One example is the conversation with our school nurse. As we review medical information and authorizations, we also take the opportunity to learn more about each student and understand the unique needs of that student and family.
Those conversations matter.
Knowing a student’s circumstances before the first day of classes allows our team to be better prepared to support them from the moment they arrive. It also gives parents an opportunity to know the people they can turn to if questions or concerns arise during the year.
Move-In: From Dorm Room to Home
While one group is checking in, the other half of our move-in families is busy carrying boxes, making beds, organizing closets, and beginning to turn a dorm room into a home.
This is where our leadership team and other members of the Oak Hill community jump in.
Moving into a boarding school dorm can be exciting, but for a new student, it can also be overwhelming. There is a lot happening at once, and the realization that they are about to live away from home can suddenly become very real.
A helping hand can make a tremendous difference.
Our leadership team is there to carry a box, help a family find the right room, answer a question, or simply start a conversation. Just as importantly, veteran students are an essential part of the welcome. This team is made up of returning students who have been identified for leadership potential and are willing to cut their summer a day short to return to campus to make the move in experience special. They often remember how someone made it special for them and want to now pass it on to the next class of new students at Oak Hill Academy.
For a nervous or anxious new student, meeting another student who has already been through move-in day can be incredibly reassuring. A simple, “Don’t worry, we’ve got you,” from a returning student can sometimes accomplish more than any formal orientation.
It is one of the things that makes a small boarding school experience special.
The adults provide guidance and support, but students also welcome students. Friendships begin in hallways, on staircases, while carrying boxes, and in those first conversations with someone who may eventually become a close friend.
By the end of the afternoon, families have done much more than complete paperwork and unpack a room.
They have begun building the network of people who will help make Oak Hill feel like home.
Sunday: New Domestic Students Arrive
Sunday: New Domestic Students Arrive
Sunday brings the arrival of our new domestic students, along with the opportunity for them to meet the new international students who have traveled to campus through our airport shuttle.
The experience is intentionally a little different from Saturday.
Rather than arriving on a quiet, empty campus where everyone is experiencing move-in for the first time, our Sunday arrivals step onto a campus that is already brimming with activity. Returning students and new international students have had a day to settle in, reconnect with friends, meet members of the staff, and get some of those first-day jitters out of their system.
That creates an immediate sense of energy for our newest domestic students.
There are students in the hallways. Dorm rooms are coming together. Conversations are already happening. New international students are beginning to find their place. The campus feels like a community rather than simply a school waiting for students to arrive.
And importantly, the students who arrived on Saturday are now able to help welcome those arriving on Sunday.
The Welcome Continues
The administrative and move-in activities from Saturday are repeated for our new domestic families. Students and parents complete the check-in process, connect with administrators and support staff, and make sure all enrollment and medical requirements are in place.
At the same time, students move into their dorms and begin creating their new spaces.
Just as on Saturday, we encourage our staff and student leaders to be actively involved. The goal is to make sure that a student who arrives on Sunday quickly sees familiar faces and begins making connections.
For our new international students, Sunday is also an important moment. They have already begun their transition to Oak Hill, and now they have the chance to welcome classmates who are experiencing the same excitement, and perhaps the same nerves, they felt just a day earlier.
That peer-to-peer connection is powerful.
Sunday Evening: Let the Fun Begin
By the end of the day, the focus begins to shift from moving in to getting to know one another.
With the administrative details behind them and students settled into their dorms, the evening becomes the start of formal orientation. Icebreakers, group activities, and opportunities to meet classmates help turn a collection of new students into the beginnings of a community.
For some students, the first real friendship of the year may begin during one of these activities. For others, it may simply be the first time they laugh with someone who, just hours earlier, was a complete stranger.
That is the goal of the first weekend.
We want every student, whether they arrived from across the state, across the country, or across the world, to look around campus and begin recognizing people they know.
By Sunday night, Oak Hill is no longer waiting for the school year to begin.
The community is already underway.
Move-In Day Is About More Than Moving In
A successful move-in weekend is not measured by how quickly every box makes it into a dorm room.
It is measured by the connections that begin along the way.
A parent meets the school nurse and feels confident that their child’s individual needs are understood. A new student meets a returning student who helps ease those first-day nerves. A family hears directly from the President and administrators about the year ahead. A roommate relationship begins while two students are making their beds. A new international student welcomes a classmate who has just arrived from across the country.
These moments may seem small, but together they create something important.
Belonging.
At Oak Hill Academy, we believe the relationships between students, families, faculty, administrators, and staff are central to the boarding school experience. Move-in weekend gives us our first opportunity each year to begin building those relationships in person.
By the time the final boxes are unpacked, the paperwork is complete, and the orientation activities begin, we hope every student knows something important:
You are not simply moving into a dorm. You are joining a community.
Welcome to The Hill.
- Schedule a call with our Admissions Office: Click here to choose a time
- Email us: admission@oak-hill.net
- Call us directly: (276) 579-2619
Let’s start the conversation about how Oak Hill Academy can help reshape your teen’s future.