Meaningful Events on Campus

If you are lucky enough to visit campus this week, you will be witnessing one of the great Barnard traditions.  Spirit Day has evolved into Spirit Week since I graduated: the result of hard-working and ambitious students who recognized that one day just wasn’t quite enough.  I had the great pleasure of serving on the McIntosh Activities Council (McAC) during my time at Barnard, and worked closely with members of the student government to plan Spirit Day, as well as several other school-wide events, throughout my senior year.  
 

Maya Zinkow (the current McAC president) 

and me with Millie, Spirit Day 2012

During my first three years at Barnard, these celebration days were always highlights of my year.  Barnard is a very academically focused school, and these events brought people out of the library and computer labs during the day to relax and visit with their classmates.  When the opportunity arose for me to take over the management of these events my senior year, I was thrilled to be able to give back to my college community.  

Best part of the early set-up shift?   

Picking up the balloons!

I remember walking up Broadway towards campus on my final Spirit Day, carrying (or being carried) by seven dozen multi-colored balloons and thinking back to my first Spirit Day three years previous.  It was the end of what had been a year of difficult transitions: moving to a new city, adjusting to college, making new friends.  I spent a good majority of that year being unsure of where and how I fit in to my new community.  However, as I sat surrounded by my fellow students, eating barbeque and making ice-cream sundaes, I realized how many people I knew, how many people cared about me, and how welcome I was in my new world.  I hung up balloons with renewed vigor on my final Spirit Day, thinking about all the first-years who would be having the same epiphany that day, and feeling grateful that I had the opportunity to contribute to their realization. 

My roommates and heroes Rebecca Moore, Shilpa Guha, and 

Clare Korir at our last Midnight Breakfast

It is rainy today in Washington, DC and I am sending thoughts of sun to Barnard’s campus.  Barnard is such a special place, and I love that there is now a week to remind us how appreciated each student is by her peers, the administration and the community.

Melanie