Moving day: Napa Valley College welcomes students to new on-campus housing complex
Nick Otto, Napa Valley Register
Move-in day for Napa Valley College’s $114 million student housing complex has arrived,
and the chain-link construction fences that once enclosed the site feel like a distant
memory.
River Trail Village comprises three multistory buildings at the north end of NVC’s
campus along Highway 221.
Each building offers a different lifestyle — a residence hall that offers single and
double rooms, a building with furnished apartments of varying sizes, and a building
with unfurnished apartments designed for returning students, students with partners,
or families.
Everything is new, from the smell of fresh white paint on the walls to the floor-length
windows in the main community room that open up completely to create an open-air environment
for residents.
Students began to trickle onto campus early Friday afternoon, checking with staff
underneath an NVC-branded easy-up canopy and moving their belongings in with the help
of large yellow bins on wheels.
Keana Daneshmand, 18, is one of the community college's newest arrivals. She and her
mother Hayedeh Daneshmand played a light game of Ping-Pong in River Trail Village’s
outdoor community space as they waited for their yellow bin to begin the move-in process.
Keana came up from Claremont in Southern California to NVC to play on their women’s
volleyball team, and quickly fell in love with River Trail Village.
“The campus is gorgeous, the housing … I already went into my room. It’s so nice,”
she said.
For $1,500, she is sharing an apartment with three other women, two of them her volleyball
teammates. They will share a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. Daneshmand is
sharing her room, but there’s a built-in wall divider to keep some sense of privacy.
“I’m an extrovert, I love hanging out with people, but I’m an only child," she said
of the arrangements. "So I would love to have some roommates — that’d be kind of cool.”
Monthly rent for each unit varies based on the kind of living situation students seek.
According to River Trail Village’s website, the cost of a furnished, single-occupancy
residence hall room is $1,278 a month. For a two-bedroom unfurnished apartment, which
comes with a private bathroom, kitchen, living room and laundry area, the rent is
$2,695.
Daneshmand's mother Hayedeh is an architect and appreciates the structure of the housing,
but ultimately cares most about her daughter's happiness.
“I appreciate it for what it is,” Hayedeh said, “She told me exactly these words:
‘Mom, when I imagine living on my own, this is the kind of place I want to live.’”
Hayedeh thinks the cost is steep to share a room, but feels the experience Daneshmand
will get with her fellow teammates is worth it. As a mother, Hayedeh has seen better
days.
“I’ve been crying every day. Right now I’m trying to help her enjoy her moment,” Hayedeh
said.
That moment has finally come for many other students. According to NVC’s director
of housing operations Ashley Knapp, there are currently 107 leases signed, 35 on the
way, and 175 applications to go through for the roughly 550 beds offered.
Move-in Emilio Diaz is occupying a single room in Building 3, the village’s residence
hall that most closely resembles traditional university housing.
Diaz, 18, moved from Cloverdale to NVC to play baseball and study business administration.
He looked into the student housing and at Santa Rosa Junior College, but felt it was
too close to home. He’s looking forward to building community, especially with his
teammates.
“I heard almost every single one of them will be staying here," he said. "I have two
(teammates) that are right next door, so it will be nice like that.”
As for other essential needs, Knapp said the college will not be providing meal plans
but has been working on getting a food delivery system in place, is placing vending
machines in common spaces, and has teamed with the college's basic needs center to
help spread the word.
NVC's basic needs center gives away up to three bags of assorted groceries each month
to students at NVC.
Seeing the housing project finally open is a privilege for Robin Darcangelo, who is
NVC's senior dean of student affairs and the college's lead on River Trail Village.
Darcangelo spent five years working on the housing, from organizing focus groups to
detailing construction plans.
“It’s emotional, because I’ve been in every thread of this project,” Darcangelo said.
“I’m very fortunate and grateful to have people that are on task and know how important
it is to complete projects on time.”
According to Darcangelo, NVC officials listened to state surveys that listed housing
insecurity as one of the main challenges for college students.
“Our board of trustees and our president supported the River Trail Village because
it is aligned with the needs of our students across the state for housing insecurity,
food insecurity and mental health,” she said.
Darcangelo described the housing complex as move-in ready, although the three murals
designed for each building aren’t quite finished yet. The last mural, inside Building
3, will be done in September.
Resident assistants like Xavier Moreland, 18, moved in a couple of weeks before move-in
day. Moreland came to NVC to pursue his dream of becoming a sommelier, and the new
housing helped secure his decision.
“I needed a place to live, and I also wanted to have (access) to wine programs,” Moreland
said.
Having moved from Ohio to Los Angeles to Napa, Moreland feels a little numb to the
transition, but became an RA to help foster community and help his fellow students.
“I’m looking forward to feeling like I am home, and I’m looking forward to making
other people feel like it’s their home,” he said.
Students will continue moving in on the weekend before the fall semester begins Aug.
26, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the student housing will take place on Sept.
20.
For more information, visit River Trail Village website
Read the original article at the Napa Valley Register.
Article written by Riley Palmer, Napa Valley Register
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