See which North Texas schools made U.S. News ‘best global universities’ rankings<\/a><\/p>\nThe room reveals were the culmination of the summer. Before the grand surprise, the students gathered around a table, excitedly guessing what knicknacks they\u2019d stumble upon in their new rooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will Arthur get his TV? Will Dane be united with his coffee pot? Will there be enough pink and cheetah print to satisfy Jade?\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Freshman]()
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Freshman Da\u2019Veion Allen reacts as he sees his newly decorated dorm room at the University of North Texas on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Denton.<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Over time, Ward has seen a range of reactions, from tears to laughter. The fourth year was no exception.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Arthur took in the gleaming new TV, the velvet navy blanket, and the poster of his favorite basketball player. He thought about all that he had gone through \u2014 and all that he would go on to do. He promised that his sons in the future would have rooms as special as this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, he looked around at his newfound friends \u2014 showering him with hugs, cheering alongside him, recording the joy spread across his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He walked into the hallway and joined the crowd huddling outside the next dorm to be revealed. When that door opened, he would do exactly what his friends did for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He would make their moment feel extraordinary. He would make them feel like they could do anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If they aimed high, surely, they would land among the stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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![\"Freshman]()
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Freshman Javontay Clayton reacts alongside his friends as he walks into his newly decorated dorm room at the University of North Texas on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Denton.<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freshman Dane Benge (right) falls into his friends arms as he sees a Funko figure of himself in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101345,96672,102,104,103,223,100451,88032,93224,89396,89204,89398],"class_list":["post-398334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-arts-entertainment-lifestyle","tag-business-philanthropy","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news","tag-news-inspired","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-denton","tag-tp-ed-lab-college-career","tag-tp-education-lab","tag-tp-higher-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}