Elon University welcomed the Class of 2029 for Move-In Day on Aug. 22.
Screams of joy rang through a residence hall Friday, Aug. 22 as Samantha Probst ’29, her roommate Leah Rappaport ’29 and Jonas Hinsdale ’29 came together in a big hug – Probst telling Hinsdale he’s the reason she and Rappaport are now roommates.
“Jonas is one of my best friends from home,” said Rappaport, who is from Westchester, New York. “I knew I wanted to room with somebody who is also interested in the theatre field, and I said, ‘Jonas, do you know anyone in your major who I could room with?’ and he was like, ‘Actually, this girl Sam is perfect.”
Hinsdale connected the two young women, and they clicked immediately.
“From our first conversation, I just knew she was the one,” said Probst, who is a Vocal Scholar from Redondo Beach, California. “She is just so joyful and made me so excited to move to campus and live with her.”
Achieve your dreams
Now all three students are members of Elon University’s Class of 2029, who moved to campus on Aug. 22, coming from 43 states and 15 countries, including Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Panama.
The three first-year students are also part of the Performing Arts Living Learning Community (LLC), one of the more than a dozen LLCs at Elon where students live in the same residential area, interacting academically and socially with each other and with faculty that share the same passion, interest, or academic focus.
“When we found out we were living on the same floor, we were so excited,” said Hinsdale, who will be majoring in music theatre. “I’m so excited for our next four years together, and we’re going to have a blast because we’re already such good friends.”
All three students chose Elon for the performing arts, with the university recently ranked #4 “Best College Theatre” by the Princeton Review and named one of the ’25 Best Drama Schools of 2025” by The Hollywood Reporter.
“I knew about the alumni and its reputation and specifically the small class sizes, and the opportunities that came with it,” said Probst, who will major in music theatre. “But then, when I did more digging and research on the school itself, I realized how many opportunities there are with study abroad and having a double major or minor.”
Probst’s parents, Christie and John Probst P’29, say they will be sad to see her leave home but know she will thrive at Elon.
“She’s such a sweet, good kid, and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed having her home, but we’re also really excited for her to take the next step, and we know that Elon’s going to be a great place for her to do that and grow as a person and excel and hopefully achieve all of her dreams,” said John.
No place like Elon
As the university welcomes more than 1,500 new students for the 2025-26 academic year, Elon will now have representation from all 50 U.S. states, but some students like Praise Ogundeji ’29 are not coming from far away. She moved to Elon on Friday from Greensboro, North Carolina, and says, after her first tour at the university, she didn’t want to go anywhere else.
“My tour guide was an eye-opener, she just made me fall in love with the school,” said Ogundeji, who plans to major in international business.
Ogundeji is part of the African Diaspora LLC, which is open to students of all academic interests and racial/ethnic backgrounds. It is the perfect fit for students interested in the expansive, global and interconnected nature of the lived experiences of those who have ancestral ties to Africa.
“The whole experience is exciting to me,” said Ogundeji. “Decorating my dorm, meeting new people and our activities here.”
Elon requires students to live on campus for the first two years of school with first-year students living in one of five residential neighborhoods: Colonnades Neighborhood, Danieley Neighborhood, East Neighborhood, Global Neighborhood and Historic Neighborhood.
The roommate connection
Isabelle Drake ’29 and her roommate, Kylie Mazzei ’29 connected online before coming to Elon, bonding over the color theme of a future room in the Historic Neighborhood.
“We both said blue and white, so I think that was a big green flag,” said Drake, who is from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and is a Change Maker Scholar.
Before Move-In Day, Drake visited Mazzei in her hometown of Essex Fells, New Jersey, where they attended a concert together and were able to bond.
“We hit it off. It was a good connection,” said Mazzei, who plans to study elementary and special education.
Drake is planning to study in the School of Communications, exploring fields in broadcast meteorology or sports reporting. She was drawn to the university for the study abroad opportunities and Elon’s unique Winter Term in January. Julie Drake P’29, Isabelle’s mother, praised the Move-In Day process and is excited for her daughter, her first child leaving for college.
“It looks like the entire community is out. I’m impressed. They really have pulled all the stops out,” said Julie, about Move-In Day. “It’s been a whirlwind. It’s an exciting time for her. It’s definitely going to be difficult for us at home, and we’ll definitely miss her. But we have high hopes. It’s going to be an awesome year.”
Julie says the college selection and touring process was almost like “a full-time job,” but after touring Elon, she knew it was the right place for her daughter.
“We toured a very large university, and I remember they said, ‘If you go three blocks that way, you’ll find that’ and ‘Oh, and there’s a transit bus, you’ll want to use that.’ I just felt so overwhelmed, and I was just thinking, ‘I’m not sure this is the right fit for Isabelle,’” said Julie. “And then we came here, everything is walkable, and it’s beautiful. On the tour, I feel like the tour guide was hugging every third person. You could tell it was a close-knit community.”
While Drake and Mazzei didn’t know each other before Elon, roommates Alessio Vaccaro ’29 and Will Saratella ’29 went to high school together in Needham, Massachusetts.
“I committed to Elon and Will was thinking about it, and I was trying to get him to commit,” said Vaccaro, who plans to study finance. “I’m most excited about meeting new people and getting into classes and seeing what it’s like. It will be a cool, new change-up from high school.”
And as students began to unpack their rooms and say goodbye to family, they are reflecting on their new home and their decision to attend Elon.
“I really wanted that one-on-one personalized experience, and I knew that I would only get that at Elon,” said Probst. “It just seemed to check off every box at the end. It was just the perfect fit, and I made the perfect choice.”
