ViCE, or Vassar College Entertainment (the “i” is silent), is responsible for putting on events for the student body throughout the school year. Split up into subcategories such as Jazz Night, Student Music, Film League, and Special Events, to name a few, ViCE is budgeted a large sum by the Vassar Student Association (VSA) each year to bring the best acts, speakers, and experiences to campus.
Two of the largest events that ViCE constructs each year, which I always look forward to with bated breath, are the Fall and Spring musical concerts. Proposed primarily by ViCE music, performers in the three years I have attended Vassar have been Of Montreal, Kid Sister, Skizzy Mars, Das Racist, Yeasayer, and Phantogram. This year, however, ViCE outdid themselves and brought my new favorite artist to campus.
The one, the only, SOLANGE KNOWLES.
This was, to my memory, the first concert during my run at Vassar that has sold out. Expectations were high. Would you believe it, though, Solange totally came through.
The Chapel was packed with people, and even though we waited forty five extra minutes, elbow to elbow with sweaty students, the enthusiasm was palpable. By the time Solange exploded onto the stage, rocking the coolest button down/shorts combo to ever exist, everyone went wild. The girl, quite simply, has it. Her stage presence was phenomenal, her dance moves were clutch, and she hit notes with her voice that I didn’t know existed.
The ultimate comment following the concert was one of the following:
- “How about them pipes, though?!”
- “I just wish I could dance like that.”
- “I LOVE HER.”
Solange, thank you.
ViCE, I am forever indebted.
Best Vassar concert experience of my entire time here… LOOKING FORWARD TO THE SPRING!
The Junior Year Adventure
So… the first thing I’d like to say about this year is that it’s AWESOME.
Every year of Vassar just gets better and better. Here’s what I’ve been up to lately!
A couple weeks ago I had a gig in Blodgett Courtyard called ‘Under The Stars.’ My buddies and I got to set up and lay down some fat grooves to jam on and we played music!
Lately, it’s been pretty sunny outside and so I’ve been going on morning bike rides and before class, I like to sit outside and read current papers on the field of neuroscience. This is a view of Sunset Lake on lazy afternoon.
This year, I’m living in the Townhouses. Every Sunday, I cook a family dinner. The menu yesterday included Italian breaded chicken breast, Indian stir-fried potatoes, and a cucumber salad.
Anyway, that’s pretty much all I have for now. Until next time!
October Breakz
About to leave for October Break, the perfectly timed space between the first six weeks of the year and the latter seven. October Break this year stretches from 5:30pm October 11th to 8 am on October 21st. Freshmen year, this break provided the opportunity to catch up with friends from high school and reflect on what a bangin’ choice I’d made going to Vassar instead of one of my friend’s universities. Sophomore year, I traveled abroad to London to be with the boyfriend I would one day marry. Turned out to be an entirely inaccurate sentiment, but it was an exceptionally romantic trip at the time. Junior year, I was at Prague Film School, but had the opportunity to visit Dublin with some international pals.
Senior Year, you would imagine, would be the break that outdid all other breaks- Will Lily go to Swaziland on an Outing Club trip? Will she build homes in Costa Rica? Will she #YOLO and go wild in Miami a la Spring Breakers?
None of the above! Instead, I am going home to exotic Annapolis, Maryland. I’ve never been so excited.
After you’ve been at college for a couple years, October Break is clearly the time to go home, be spoiled with fresh pasta, snuggling with your sister, and watching Game of Thrones with the fam. I’ll leave the other trips to the less fortunate underclassmen.
Maybe, just maybe, I’ll save the trip to Miami for Spring Break. 😉
Full Circle
Before I came to Vassar in the fall of 2010, I found myself panicking about one of the age-old traditions: Serenading.
Of what I had read, it sounded high embarrassing. In short, during serenading, the Freshmen from each dorm “serenade” all of the Seniors with a pop song, lyrically edited so as to best praise the Seniors. I had a terrible voice. I had lots of qualms about performing for a Senior class that I did not know. Furthermore, how would the other Freshmen in my dorm respond to the event? Was this, essentially, hazing? Had I skipped out on Greek Life only to enter an Animal House-esque PUBLIC HUMILIATION?
The answer is, no.
Serenading was the greatest day of my young Freshmen life. See delighted Freshmen and her two Lathrop pals below, as evidence.
Yesterday, the college cycle came full circle, and I experienced Serenading from the Senior perspective. As the Freshman babies sang their hearts out and performed epic dance routines, I felt a bittersweet sense of nostalgia. It’s fabulous for them, they have three years until they have to be on the other side, but for me- it’s a little too real.
So instead of recognizing that I, unfortunately, have reached my ultimate year at Vassar- I pretended I was a Freshmen again, and danced with my old Lathrop dorm pals, sang along to Miley Cyrus and had a good ol’ (wrecking) ball of a time.
Huck For Red October!
Women’s Team and Women’s Alum Team
Greetings Vassar admission’s blog! This is my first entry of the year! My name is Anna and I’m a senior psychology major and studio-art correlate. The main focus of my weekend, however, was planning Vassar’s annual home Ultimate-Frisbee tournament, Huck For Red October. As one of four captains of the Ultimate team, I was responsible for helping to organize this extravaganza! We hosted fifteen teams (which included three current Vassar teams as well as two alumni teams) and spent all of Saturday and Sunday playing frisbee, barbecuing, and hanging out with other schools. It all went swimmingly, and now I’m sitting in the retreat (a dining option on campus), recovering mentally and writing this blog post instead of a paper for my psychopathology and the legal system seminar (which is actually incredibly interesting and will be cool to write!)
My day today consisted of sculpture class from 10-12, and work (tour-guiding) from 12-1. Normally I would have Frisbee practice from 3-6, but since we just had a tournament, we’re taking a day off. I don’t think my muscles could do much more running at this point..! Normally I would have dinner with the team at the Deece (The All Campus Dining Center) after practice, but I’ll probably cook something with my housemates and then will head to a cappella rehearsal and then finish up my paper! Until next time…
You may not know this, but classes at Vassar love making you get your hands dirty.
In perhaps the perfect way to escape New York’s when it was perpetual winter, I traveled to Death Valley, California over Spring Break with my Sedimentology class! Our entire class has been structured around studying the types of sediments and landforms we would encounter in Death Valley, so it was incredible to actually go there and see (and touch!) the geology firsthand. We slept in a rustic Desert Studies Center used especially by geologists, biologists, and ecologists studying Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. Our days were packed full of traveling and experiences: we visited multiple canyons, squeezed through holes in volcanic rocks at Hole in the Wall, saw a beautiful desert spring, traveled to Badwater Basin (the lowest point in North America), and even drove out into the middle of a salt bed at sunset to watch a comet pass over the mountains. We climbed the tallest sand dunes in North America (Kelso Dunes) and, by scooting in unison down the steep sand slopes, created a deep, rumbling noise in the dunes caused by avalanching sand. It’s called ‘making the dunes sing’! The stargazing was, of course, also amazing. This was my first time in a desert, but I’ll definitely never forget it (even if my tan has already faded). -Katie
The “Main” Attraction – Est. 1861
I live in Main House. It’s an awesome place. When it was built, it was the longest building in the nation and now it’s a national landmark! What’s not cool about living in a national landmark!?
As a student fellow, I get my own single. I have some pictures of my family up on the wall as well as some drawings that I’ve made. I also have a poster of Emma Watson. Yup.
In addition to having the retreat right downstairs, we get the beautiful Rose Parlor. It’s an awesome place to study/hang out.
So, I have to go study now. Oh… look. The library is right across from Main! Now that’s convenient.
Best,
Matt
Do it Jewett!
I live in Jewett House, the tallest building on campus and the place with the best views of the setting sun.
What I like most about Jewett is that it’s got these nice little common rooms on every floor which are the perfect place to relax and socialize (and work, sometimes). Anyway, here’s me and my neighbors having a jam sesh.
The best thing about my roommate, David Quispe, is that he climbs on furniture, glows a heavenly gold, and causes us all to look up in admiration.
Vassar’s Fellow group system allows the people you live with on your hall to get close and form a sort of family. Here’s my fellow group doing a secret-Santa get together.
-Tim
Welcome (to my) home!!
So…you probably already know that Vassar has great academics, professors, history, and so on, but right about now you’re probably asking yourself one big question: what’s your dorm going to look like?! Well, I can’t speak to anyone else’s personal tastes or decorative styles, but I can show you around my house and dorm room! Hopefully this will give you some idea about what dorm living is like at Vassar, and then you can make your own poster/photo/lighting choices from there!
This is my second year in Cushing House, and I’ve really grown to love its cozy charm and unique quirks. And, of course, many of the people here have become like family. It’s great to come home at the end of every day, walk into the downstairs “Great Hall,” and see my little house community. Many of these people have lived here with me since the first day of my freshman year, and we all know each other pretty well by this point. Cushing isn’t on the main residential quad, and looks a little different from other dorms, but I think it’s beautiful (Hogwarts, anyone?!) Look at that picture of Cushing in the snow! It has so much character.
This year, as a sophomore, I was able to get a single room. I live in a hallway called the SQ’s (short for – crazy, I know – the servants’ quarters) with a bunch of other sophomores and juniors. I came into this year knowing that I wanted to make my room my own personal little oasis, my happy place! I packed it full of patterns, warm colors, pictures of friends and family, posters (of mountains and snowboarders!!) and glowing lights, and have been happy as a clam. I included a picture of the view from my window, too, because I love the afternoon light that comes through the trees. Your dorm room is yours to make your own, so definitely have fun with it!
-Katie
Freshmen + Water + Singing = Serenading
One of Vassar’s long time traditions, Serenading sees the outgoing senior class march around campus engaging in highly tactical water-balloon battles with the newly arrived freshman class.
The seniors gather together the (undoubtedly) defeated freshman and lead them past sunset lake up to Ballentine field.
Finally, the freshman put on a performance of song and dance, conveying their (undoubted) respect for the senior class, which the seniors judge to be worthy or not.
Serenading happens every fall semester and is a celebration of arriving at Vassar, leaving Vassar and the change of times.
– Tim
