I help run Tulane University\'s New Student Orientation. The Saturday before Hurricane Katrina hit was Freshman Move-In Day. During Move-In Day President Cowen made the announcement that the University was going to close until the next week and that everyone needed to evacuate. Campus closed around 4pm, but I stayed around campus with some other Orientation leaders to help ensure everything was secure. At 6:30 I got on the road with one of my roommates and a friend. We went north out of the city and got to Mississippi. Once in Mississippi we turned west and took backroads to Lafayette. We reached Lafayette around 11 that night spent the night. Sunday morning we woke up at 6 and headed to Dallas, TX. On Monday Hurricane Katrina made landfall and by Thursday President Cowen made the announcement that the University was going to be closed. Thursday afternoon we left Dallas and went to Houston, where I\'m from. The two people I evacuated with both flew out of Houston to go home. \r\nTulane has an EMBA campus in Houston, so Friday morning I went to this campus and told them I was there to volunteer. The following Monday the administration from Tulane arrived at this office, which became their homebase until December. I spent the semester volunteering for Tulane, which included answering phones at the new office, working in the Call Center, answering emails, and planning Orientation for January. \r\nThe semester in Houston was incredible because I got to see first-hand how hard the administration worked and how hard they fought to reopen the University by January. \r\nWhen Hurricane Rita threatened Houston we evacuated to Dallas for four days. \r\nFall 2005 will be something I always remember. I remember watching CNN and seeing Hurricane Katrina make landfall and then watching the levees break and seeing New Orleans (the city I love to call home) flood. The semester, as many people will agree, was an emotional rollercoaster ranging from fear to despair to loss of faith to hope to elation. The people I volunteered with were incredible people, all having a huge amount of faith and hope that New Orleans would one day return to being the city we all knew and loved. \r\nWhen I finally was able to return (for more than a few days at a time) to New Orleans in January I have never been more excited or happy about anything in my life. When the University reopened my friends and I cried for everything that New Orleans lost and for the hope for what would come. I am so glad to be back home.