Events!
In addition to just going to class, ResEd (that's residential education in Stanford-lingo) makes it possible to extend your Stanford experiences beyond the classroom. They subsidize a number of cultural and student-initiated activities, allowing students to go off the farm for a number of fun events. Make sure to take a look at the events below and look at the calendar for an idea of what to expect!
Potential Events:
The Game
Scavenger Hunt
House Meeting
Faculty Visits
Ski Trip!
Yosemite Trip
Dorm trip to Ashland
Scavenger Hunt
One of the "standard" freshman dorm activities, on a special weekend during Autumn quarter, Donner will venture up to San Francisco along with approximately half of the freshmen class for the not-so-traditional scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt will divide you into small groups with the objective of completing as many of your given tasks as possible. The dorm will get you to San Francisco and a camera to document the mayhem, but then it's up to you.
The list of tasks includes such things as getting a picture of one of your group members trying on a wedding dress, finishing a Ghiradelli "earthquake" sundae, getting a group of at least 20 people to do your dorm cheer, or getting someone from Cal to bow down before you.
Ski...errr Snow Trip
Though often referred to simply as "Ski Trip," the freshman dorm trip to Lake Tahoe is much more than that. Imagine 90 of your friends, a small(ish) house in Lake Tahoe, and snow...it's bound to be a good time! No matter what you enjoy, Snow Trip will have something for you. From epic games of Taboo to hitting the slopes at one of South Lake Tahoe's ski resorts, Snow Trip is an incredible opportunity to get off campus, not worry about problem sets (too much), and have some fun up in beautiful Lake Tahoe!
Yosemite Trip
Every year Stanford dorms take trips off the farm to help the residents experience the many opportunities that California has to offer. Yosemite is an absolutely breathtaking National Park only 4 or so hours from Stanford. The Yosemite Valley offers hikes of all levels, beautiful views, and a nice little shop where one can buy a pint of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream at the end of a long day.
Next year, we hope to make a trip up to Yosemite (probably in the second half of the year) to share this incredible outdoor experience with all of you!
Dorm Trip to Ashland
One of the things that makes Donner Donner is the yearly trip the dorm takes to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Not only is it an incredible opportunity to see some great plays, but Ashland is an incredible small town and let's face it, a road trip with the rest of your freshmen dorm is bound to be a good time! For more information about the OSF click here
The Game
For twenty-four hours, those brave students who partake in "The Game" will be subjected to a series of tasks designed to push them to the limit and test their physical, emotional, and mental strength. Actually...it's probably mainly mental.
The Game is a Stanford tradition which was started, as legend tells us, in the 1970s by a couple of students living in Mirlo (a Stanford dorm in FloMo). The game quickly won fame for the incredible challenge it posed to any daring problem solvers and has gradually spread, becoming a hallmark of freshman dorms across campus. From figuring out that a box of chocolates spells out a message in morse code denoted by the intermingling of dark and milk chocolates to looking at the net gross of a series of movies, converting it into ascii characters and finding where to look for the next clue -- the game will challenge your problem solving skills. Traditionally, students forms teams of 3 or 4 for a day (as in 24 hours, you'll need it) of running about the Bay Area looking for and trying to solve clues. If this sounds like your cup of tea, check out this problem tutorial for a taste of game questions (and how to solve them).