Jones Family Doubles Up On Move-In Day
It wasn’t your typical move-in day at Keene State College for the Jones family of Lee, NH. Scott and Cindy Jones were not only dropping off their son Tyler, a first-year student from Oyster River High School in Durham, but also daughter Addison, a junior transfer from Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth.
Admittedly apprehensive and a bit frazzled, Cindy, who works as a producer/videographer on WMUR-TV’s Chronicle show in Manchester, is happy to report that she couldn’t have scripted a better Move-In Day for her two kids. “It all went like clockwork. Everything went off without a hitch,” she said.
Bringing two kids to school isn’t easy. College-aged students have a tendency to over-pack and to try to squeeze everything from their room at home into a smaller dorm room they’re sharing with a roommate. And then there’s the problem of fitting everything into the car. The Joneses came up with a game plan. “We had two cars, so we went with a divide-and-conquer approach,” said Cindy. “One kid went with one parent and the other went with the other parent.”
Maneuvering around the traffic, Cindy and Tyler, along with grandparents, made their way to Monadnock Hall, while Scott and Addison headed for Huntress Hall. “It was pretty smooth,” said Tyler. “I brought quite a bit of stuff – maybe too much, but my roommate is great and I’m getting to know everyone on my floor.”
Meanwhile, Addison and her dad didn’t run into any problems at Huntress. “There were a lot of people out there with carts to help us,” she said. “They helped us bring stuff in, so it was pretty easy.”
In addition to being two years apart in age, Tyler and Addison bring different interests to Keene State. Tyler, who plans to major in environmental studies, was on the sustainability committee and played golf in high school and spent the summer working for the Appalachian Mountain Club, clearing trails and building bridges in the White Mountains.
Tyler said he chose Keene State because “I absolutely loved the community and the people here.” He appreciates that the curriculum is flexible, he added, and gives students leeway to determine their own path. “If you’re going to have a career and life after college, you have to make it for yourself and make your own future.”
Addison, who is majoring in biology, has interests that range from track and field and photography to sculpting. Intrigued with nature at a young age, she has worked at camps and served as a naturalist at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye.
Addison said she has no problems being on the same campus as her brother. “I think it will work out pretty well,” she said. “We don’t have any issues or rivalries. We will both support each other. I’ll have someone I can talk to and of course it will be much easier for my parents, who just have to go to one school to see us.”
Their mom feels Keene State is the perfect place for both of her kids. “We live six minutes from UNH and I was afraid they would get lost in the shuffle there,” said Cindy, who briefly attended KSC in the 1980s. “My son, in particular, likes to get involved with the community. As a mother I get the impression that both Tyler and Addison will flourish at Keene State.”
