At the beginning of the school year, there were two retreats: one for freshmen and one for seniors. This year, they looked a little different due to COVID. Students, faculty, and prefects provide their opinions on how the retreats played out.
Students were lucky to feel some sense of normalcy by participating in the longstanding traditions of the freshman and senior retreats, which are held to ease students back into school in a fun way.
The freshmen retreat was a twelve-hour day lasting from 8:00 am – when freshmen, prefects, advisors, and house heads left GA for Camp Canadensis – until about 8:00 pm, when they returned to GA. The biggest difference between this year’s retreat and those of years’ past was that it was not overnight. There were mixed feelings about the retreat only being a day trip. For example, prefect Riya Palkar ‘22 says, “[she] would’ve liked for it to be overnight because it was a good part of [her] retreat, and it was nice to get to know everyone in the bunks.” On the contrary, freshman Winston Sun ‘25 was “happy about not staying overnight.”
Freshmen and prefects enjoyed activities like low-ropes courses, kayaking and canoeing, foam pits, rock climbing, s’mores, and summer reading discussions led by the seniors. Free time was the universal favorite among freshmen because they enjoyed having time to hang out with friends, both new and old, without being stuck in assigned groups.
COVID was not a large issue with the retreat, as it was mostly outdoors, but masks were worn on the bus rides and anytime students and faculty were indoors. In years to come, the retreat will probably be overnight with fewer restrictions. Freshmen hope for more free time in the future and more freedom in deciding their groups for the day.
All in all, the freshmen retreat was an enjoyable experience for all parties involved.
On the other hand, the senior retreat only lasted a few hours. The day consisted of donuts, advisory ice-breakers, and summer reading discussions. Advisories also discussed plans for future years in the Upper School. Students came up with ideas for new traditions and ways to improve current traditions, and they had the opportunity to present their ideas to the rest of the senior class. According to Zach Kotik ‘22 and Saanvi Bhatia ‘22, the advisory discussion was the best part of the retreat. Kotik stated that the discussion helped his advisory “get hype for senior year”, and he loved “creating new ideas with [his] friends”. Bhatia agreed and said that “presenting the ideas and actually having a plan made them feel more realistic”. Kotik said that the retreat was “definitely slow and awkward at first”, but after “Dr. MacKean made us laugh with her -itos jokes and advisory time, the day got better.”
In previous years, the senior retreat was a scavenger hunt. Although Kotik said that he would have “loved to participate in the scavenger hunt instead”, he still found the day to be entertaining. Bhatia even thought the summer reading groups were fun! She expressed that “having small group discussions and not having set questions helped the flow of the conversation.”
This year, both retreats were less than a day but still ended up being an excellent start to the school year.
