Another thing that has kept me busy this semester is serving as one of my residential college’s Student Activities Committee chairs. My friend Marissa and I co-chaired Calhoun’s SAC, planning all the events that took place within the college.
The biggest event of the first semester in Calhoun College is the annual Trolley Night. It’s a big Mardis-Gras-themed dance in the Calhoun dining hall. We have a special Cajun dinner in the dining hall that night and then the dance. Marissa and I had so much fun planning it! Buying decorations, booking a DJ, coordinating the lighting design, and ordering a ton of beads was too fun! We couldn’t have done it, though, without Calhoun’s Master’s wife Aisling who is always so sweet to help with event planning in the college.
Thanks to the help from Aisling and so many members of Calhoun College Council who helped Marissa and me, Trolley Night was a big success! There was a good crowd, and people seemed to have a great time. It will be interesting to see what happens next year with Trolley Night since the biggest dance at Yale–80′s themed Safety Dance which is sponsored by Silliman College and held in Commons dining hall–has been canceled for next year. Will Trolley Night take Safety Dance’s place as the biggest dance each year? We’ll see…
Marissa and I also planned two big tailgates for Calhoun at the football games this fall. This year was the first year of the administration’s new tailgating rules (which were–and still are, to be honest–pretty ambiguous) so navigating that was half the battle. We held a Calhoun tailgate at the first home game of the year and one at the Princeton-Yale game, the final home game of the year. The first one was your standard Yale tailgate (snacks, candy, some food, etc), but the Princeton-Yale one was nothing short of fabulous. We hired the burrito cart from a local Mexican restaurant to come out and provide food for Calhoun students. We also had dozens and dozens of donuts and tons of coffee and hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts. Everyone thought that Calhoun’s burrito cart was the highlight of the tailgate!
The last big event of first semester is the annual Fall Fest. We had pumpkins for carving, cookies for decorations, mugs and ceramic pumpkins for painting, and tons of other activities (including the ever-popular cider pong tournament!). Fall Fest was also a success–we actually had to kick people out when it was over! They didn’t want to leave!
At the end of the semester, some freshmen boys (Austin, here’s your shout-out on my blog you’ve been wanting) wanted to plan a Calhoun talent show, so Marissa and I helped them with that a bit .
This coming semester, the big event is Calhoun Formal. I can’t wait to let y’all know how that goes!
Posting this from the Reagan Airport in DC on my way back to school! Hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas break–I sure did!
Southern Belle at Yale
