A group of frightened freshmen clung tightly to each other as they were led on a tour Friday night through one of America’s most haunted homes — the Myrtles Plantation.
 
The students listened as the tour guide eerily told tales of ghostly spirits lingering throughout the old St. Francisville plantation. In the 1700s, vengeful house slave Chloe supposedly murdered the wife and children of the plantation’s owner by baking oleander leaves into a birthday cake.
 
This was just one of a series of events hosted by Bengals Beyond the Bayou, a program created by First Year Experience to help acclimate out-of-state freshmen to life and culture in Louisiana and the University.
 
“It’s a really fun program, and it’s something the students really enjoy,” said Missy Korduner, assistant director of FYE. “They get to meet other students as well as faculty and staff.”
 
Events in the past have included the annual “What’s the Big Deal about Jambalaya?” event where students taste the local dish and learn about the culture and traditions of the state, Korduner said.
 
Erin Percevault, landscape architecture freshman from Verona, N.J., said the program has been helpful in her adjustment to Southern culture.
 
“It’s a completely new and different place, and it has its own nuances,” she said. “I didn’t know what jambalaya was before I came here.”
 
Another event was the “Downtown Getaway” where students traveled to downtown Baton Rouge to see the sights and learn more about the state’s history by visiting the Louisiana State Museum and Capitol.
 
Shanna Powers, pre-veterinary medicine freshman from Cincinnati, said the “Downtown Getaway” was a beneficial experience.
 
“I didn’t know anything about Baton Rouge or Louisiana before I came here,” she said. “It was a good opportunity to get out and do something different.”
 
Powers said the program also helped introduce her to new people.
 
“I made a lot of good friends and even found people who were in a few of my classes,” she said.
 
Ariana Kalziqi, coastal environmental science freshman from Houston, said it’s nice to meet other people from out of state.
“There are a lot of things people from Louisiana seem to know but I’m just beginning to figure out,” she said.
 
Korduner said the point of the Myrtles trip was for the students to have fun and experience a haunted Louisiana plantation house.
 
Erika Heitkamp, biology and agricultural engineering freshman from Houston,  said she came for the thrill.
 
“I really like scary stuff,” she said. “It sounded like a good experience.”
 
Students can access the program’s website to locate other students who are coming from the same states and even the same high schools. The program also offers a regional lunch where students can meet faculty members who hail from the same states.
 
“Across the board, we felt [Bengals Beyond the Bayou] was really helpful in helping out-of-state students adjust to Louisiana and acclimate to LSU, as well,” Korduner said. “All the feedback so far has been really positive.”
 
 
 
 
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Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]