BLACKSBURG, Va. – Students awoke here yesterday amid a flood of emotions, still reeling from the campus shootings that left 33 people dead and many more wounded. But the mood around campus was not strictly a somber one.

While many students could be seen signing makeshift memorials around the campus or crying softly into the shoulders of loved ones, the campus community as a whole displayed amazing determination to show the world that the spirit of the “Hokie nation,” as it’s know, is still very much alive.

Through a day of events in commemoration of Monday’s shootings – including a midday convocation ceremony during which President Bush and Gov. Tim Kaine were joined by religious and campus leaders in speaking to students – the campus remained resolute in expressing to the world that the Monday’s tragedy would not destroy them or their beloved university.

“The school spirit here, you know, everyone knows its amazing,” said Brad Matanin, a graduate biological engineering major here, “and I think that’s why everyone is coming together so well.”

Students filled the Cassell Coliseum here with the Hokie’s orange and maroon to hear remarks from the president and the governor, determined, they said, to express the community spirit that still binds the campus community.

“As you wrestle with your sadness, as you wrestle with your anger and confusion, as you wrestle with your despair,” Kaine told students, “do not lose hold of the spirit that makes Virginia Tech such a unique place.”

Taking the stage after the governor, Bush brought condolences from a country whose attention has been riveted to the campus as the media scramble to make sense of the tragedy. “It is a day of sadness for our entire nation,” he said. “We’ve come to express our sympathy.”

Addressing the family members of the those slain Monday, who were seated on the Coliseum floor, Bush added, “As a dad, I can assure you parents’ love is never far from their child’s heart.”

After hearing from community religious leaders, students were brought to their feet in signature Hokie fashion by University Distinguished Professor and poet Nikki Giovanni, who ended her poem with the stirring line: “We WILL prevail, we WILL prevail, we WILL prevail: we are VIRGINIA TECH!”

Dave Spracher, who works in university development raising funds for the Corps of Cadets on the campus and lives in Blacksburg, said the event helped symbolized the strengthened resolve of the Virginia Tech community to bounce back from Monday’s devastating shootings.

“We need this,” said Spracher, who’s father and brother attended the school before him. “I think it’s outstanding. People around this campus need a little bit of time for healing.”

Still, despite their best efforts to look forward and regain a sense of community spirit, students here say it will take time to move on and continued to express their disbelief at what had befallen their normally picturesque campus.

“It was just something that you never, ever think of happening anywhere, and definitely not in Blacksburg,” said Chris Holler, a graduate biological engineering student. “It was surreal.”

Sophomore biology major Sara Neumann recalled her horror at watching the death toll climb from two to 20 as she watched news of the shooting unfold on television.

“It was shocking,” said Neumann. “Then I was talking to a friend on my computer, and turned around to look at the TV and saw the number had jumped again from 20 to 32.”

The long day came to an emotional close last night with an 8 p.m. candlelight vigil on the drill field, which sits between the two buildings where the shootings occurred. Students and members of the administration spoke about Hokie pride, and led students through Hokie chants that usually draw students together is support of the school’s sports teams.

“That’s who we are – Virginia Tech!” said sophomore human development major Kaylon Parker. “We’re always spirited, that’s how we get pumped up.”

“That’s what brings us together,” added Parker’s friend, sophomore international studies major Danielle Progen. “For me, none of it has settled. It will take a while to settle, and it’ll never be Virginia Tech as it was before. It’ll be a new place, but even better.”

Contact reporter Kevin Rector at rectordbk@gmail.com.