HEY HANSZEN!
You’ll be hearing that phrase a lot during your next four years at Hanszen College, your new home! Congratulations and welcome to Rice University! We are beyond excited for you to join the wonderful community here at Hanszen. We are your 2025 O-Week Coordinators: Kirstie Qian, Nimah Shukkoor, and Matthew Ahn, also known as Team KNights in shining arMor! We have been meticulously planning a memorable and exhilarating first week at Rice for you, and we cannot wait to meet you all when you arrive on campus!
Our goal is to guide you as you transition into Rice, and support you in building connections within Hanszen, the greater Rice community, and beyond the hedges! During Orientation Week, also known as O-Week, we will be giving you a sneak peek into your next four years while also immersing you into the culture of the best Residential College at Rice! O-Week is all about meeting and making new life-long friends, finding your community, learning how to balance academics and social life at Rice, and so much more! The O-Week book acts as a guide so you can feel prepared coming into O-Week. You will find suggested packing lists, Hanszen dorm layouts, your Advising team, Hanszen fun facts, and other nifty details about your favorite Residential College!
We are ecstatic to welcome you into the enchanting world of Hanszen. The Hanszen Family Heart (HFH) story gains new chapters every year as more kind and ambitious spirits add their pages to the covers of the whimsical books of Hanszen. This year’s O-Week theme is Once Upon An O-Week: Happily Every After at Zen! We chose this theme because each of you are unique characters that make up our fairytale community, using your own tools, magic, and ambition. This reflects the values of the Hanszen Family Heart, including accessibility, diversity, and friendship, and embarking on challenges to make the world a better place— all of which we hope you will experience during your time at Rice. We can’t wait for you to join our community and make your mark on all of us. We hope to give you the support and resources you need this O-Week to thrive at Rice and Hanszen, write your story however, whenever, and wherever you’d like.
Your journey through college will be a bit like a fairytale character’s journey; there will be unpredictable moments that require creativity, imagination, and heart. But remember the words of Snow White, “You’re the one that can fill the world with sunshine.” We cannot wait to welcome you to your home in August, and in the meantime, flip through the O-Week book, check out the Hanszen website (hanszen.rice.edu), follow us on instagram (@onceuponanoweek), and email us if you have any questions (onceuponanoweek@gmail.com). See y’all soon <3
“Today’s special moments are tomorrow’s memories.”
~ Aladdin
