Graphic by Sesame Gaetsaloe/The Choate News
From form events to Friday night SAC dances to simple dining hall get-togethers, Choate’s brimming social life has seen no rest, albeit in the digital realm. Now, with students scattered across the globe, Choate has risen to the challenge of staying united and continuing to foster close bonds within the community.
The loss of dorm life, one of the most active social scenes on campus, has been a tough blow, leaving students and advisers alike feeling separated. Still, many dorms have been working hard to stay connected. In dorms like Bernhard House, frequent full-dorm mug nights and adviser check-ins over Zoom attempt to replicate the sense of a dorm community. By working around time differences, students and advisers living in Bernhard have successfully convened for virtual mug nights to celebrate birthdays. These birthday gatherings have all been themed, with students arriving in crazy hats or dressed in pajamas.
Dr. Jessica Pfeil, an adviser in Bernhard, is still meeting in small groups with her advisees every two weeks, gathering together on Zoom during the ‘Break’ in the schedule. When describing the atmosphere of these meetings, Dr. Pfeil said, “The people who crack jokes in person are going to be the ones who are still cracking jokes over Zoom. I think the personalities still come through. I feel like the overall feeling [is] that we’re all in this together and that we all miss this place together.”
Ms. Colleen Kazar, Assistant Director of the Student Activities Center, has also made efforts to continue organizing social events. “I would say that, since transitioning to remote learning, we’ve had to think about ways to engage students virtually while also considering that the students were going to be in class in a virtual space all day. That can be mentally exhausting for the students,” said Ms. Kazar.
The first virtual SAC event held in the spring term was a Zoom Dance hosted on April 3 by Max Brown ’21, who played music while over 50 students dropped into the Zoom and were able to either watch or join in on the dancing. On May 1, the SAC held a joint trivia night with Deerfield Academy.
For the rest of the term, Ms. Kazar is planning a virtual Lit Coffee House, an event planned each term by The Lit as an informal get-together for poetry and music.
For seniors, the SAC has also planned events such as Senior Bingo in an attempt to bring the class together. Moving forward, senior dance lessons have been planned in place of the annual dance lessons taught in preparation for the Last Hurrah.
The SAC has also been supporting clubs that are trying to move their meetings online for the rest of the term. The Environmental Action Committee (EAC), has met three times throughout the spring term, holding more discussion-based meetings. Recently, the club held a Zoom movie night, with one cabinet member sharing WALL-E from her computer screen with the other attending members. Livia Fingerson ’22, Vice President of EAC, said, “It was just kind of a fun event to get people together and get them thinking about the environment without putting pressure on them.”
During this virtual spring term, other clubs have found it easier to host joint meetings rather than formal events. On May 6, Girl Up and Choate Women in Business (CWIB) held a joint meeting.
CWIB Co-president Charlotte Myers-Elkins ’22 said, “The attendance at this meeting was actually really successful, and I think that was definitely due, in part, to the fact that it was a joint meeting. It allows people to feel like they’re really still remaining active in Choate club life by attending two meetings at once.”
Despite these successes, there are a few notable challenges of hosting club meetings over Zoom, particularly time differences and the awkwardness that comes with talking to a computer screen. “It’s a little daunting when you’re in an online space, at least for me, to try and be the first one to speak up and say something when you don’t interact with people the same way as when you’re in a room together,” President of Girl Up Rhea Shah ’22 explained. “We found that once someone started talking, the conversation flowed more naturally.”
Although students are now scattered across the planet, the spirit of the Choate community has persisted. While the warm “hello” on the path and the informal dining hall chat prove to be impossible now, dedicated efforts by the SAC, dorm advisers, and club leaders have helped preserve what makes Choate so special: community.
