Greetings Castle Students! I’m thrilled to welcome you to this remarkable living learning community and hope you’ll quickly feel a sense of belonging in your new home. I encourage you to acknowledge any nerves you might be feeling, and I promise you others are feeling similarly.  We hope you’ll use these first weeks and months as an opportunity to get involved – try new activities, meet new people, and ask lots of questions. There will be both Castle and DU opportunities for involvement, and the most successful students find ways to engage in a bit of both.

Of course, University is a time to expand your knowledge, curiosity and skills through your degree program.  Additionally, our College community provides a supportive and encouraging environment in which you may explore who you are, what you believe, and where you are going.  This is also a time for learning about human difference.  Your peers hail from around the word, practice a wide array of faith traditions or none at all, and embrace gender and/or sexual orientation identities with which you may be less familiar.  Castle students engage a wide array of physical and intellectual abilities, hold varying political and social values, and embody racial or ethnic identities different from your own.  Part of the beauty you’ll experience here at Durham University involves these and so many other ways our students differ from one another. 

In all honesty, being part of a community isn’t always easy and sometimes involves difficult conversations in which we feel a bit vulnerable; however, with civility, respect and appreciation of difference as core values, we teach and learn together.  Attending university can be unsettling for all sorts of reasons, and we have a wonderful Student Support Team in Castle that is here to assist you along the journey.  This professional team partners with our student Welfare officers to ensure there are many educational and supportive outlets for you and your peers.  Your academic and personal success is at the core of our Mission.

As you know all too well by now, we enjoy the privilege of living and learning in a castle on a world heritage site.  This requires tremendous regard for our physical surroundings and is a shared responsibility.  We are each trusted as caretakers of history while we prepare for and advance the future. 

In closing, please keep in mind these keys to your success as a new student (fresher) in University College – those who open their hearts and minds to others, those who practice civility and respect, those who ask for assistance, and those who show up and get involved – these are the students most likely to flourish in this renowned learning community.  On behalf of the entire Castle staff, we are delighted you’ve joined us!  This community is better because you are here.  Let us know if you have questions or need any support.

Floreat Castellum!
Castle flourishing always

Wendy