For Jessica Halter, a newly arrived member of the Class of 2013, the first item on her agenda after moving into her room in Stillman Hall was pretty basic: take a shower.

The first-year from Fort Collins, Colo., was just back from a pre-orientation Wilderness Adventure program in the Adirondack Mountains, and she didn't have a shower for the past eight days.

Ask Ajay Chahar '12 where he is from, and he'll say, "Colgate."

That's partly because he is so excited about being a first-year student, and partly because he's lived in so many cities in his native India that he doesn't know which to call home. His father is an army colonel, and Chahar moved with him from post to post.

While he has traveled throughout India, learning five languages from Bengali to Punjabi in the process, he never had the opportunity to travel beyond the region.