Happy 18th Birthday Aaron!

September 21, 2014

We wish a happy happy 18th birthday to Aaron Sartin today!  First Hunt wishes you the best, Aaron, and we hope that you had a great day today!

September Innovation Week

Innovation Week (or I-week, for short) was an idea that began last year as an experiment to attempt to stimulate more innovation and opportunities for the NCSSM community while at the same time reducing some of the stress that students are trying to deal with at about the mid-point of the trimester.  I-weeks, in effect, are weeks with altered schedules where on certain days of the week and at certain times, NCSSM students, staff members, and volunteers lead activities on and off campus ranging from Service in the Durham Community, to Exploring UNC's botanical gardens, to doing Web Development or learning about Constitution Day on campus.  I-week usually also has some special activities that students are required to attend, such as College information sessions brought to us by our counselors, the NCSSM Research Fair, and College Eve.  With so many opportunities crammed into one week, I-week is a great opportunity for a student or group of students to learn about something new and different, or participate in an activity or service that excites them.  Some students take the opportunity of I-week to catch up on some sleep or do some studying catch-up.  Seniors, too, utilized extra time to make progress on college applications and scholarship deadlines.  All together, I-week is a once-a-Trimester opportunity that many enjoy- for its unique opportunities and for a bit of a less-stressful week's workload, too!

Another Happy (Belated) Birthday to Daniel Lee!

Daniel Lee celebrated his sixteenth birthday on September 11th, just a couple of weeks ago!  Happy birthday Daniel- we hope that all your wishes come true.

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Uday!

August 30th, 2014

Uday Uppal celebrated his seventeenth birthday on August 30th over the last extended weekend.  As a hall, we gave him the proper birthday wishes during hall food this past week when we sang the First Hunt version of the birthday song.  Have a great year and may it be your best yet, Uday!

Pancake and Move Night in Mr. Newbauer's Apartment!!

September 13th, 2014

One of everyone's favorite Hall Programs, Pancake Night is a chance for members of the hall to chill out, enjoy a movie, and eat plate upon plate of pancakes cooked up by your's truly: the First Hunt RLA's!  On Saturday Night at Midnight, the RLA's began mixing, pouring, and grilling away on three different pancake grills in preparation for the hungry boys that would soon be filing in and settling down in Mike's apartment.  This time, the movie of choice was Captain America 2: the Winter Soldier.  Pancakes of choice ranged from strawberry banana to chocolate chip, to blueberry, to plain, all cooked up by Jared, Shane, and myself (Steven).  At the end of the night, we (somehow) ended up with way too many pancakes and many not-so-hungry boys- I suppose a sign of a job well done?  

Pancake Night is yet another First Hunt Tradition that draws from nearly all members of the hall.  Most people like hot pancakes a good movies, after all.  It's also a good time to come together and participate in some bonding activities while we all unwind from another exciting Saturday during the business of an NCSSM weekend.  Personally, pancake night is a good program because we all have the opportunity to hang around each other and relax in the comfort of Mike's apartment, and enjoy a good bit of quality time together.  Spending time together, after all, is what makes us a stronger, more tight-knit community and helps us to break down the barriers of being somewhat separated during our hectic daily lives of the workweek.  Below I have some pictures of fun times spent together.  

S'mores Reward With Ground and First Royall

September 9th, 2014

First Hunt enjoyed sweet, sweet victory on Tuesday night.  In honor of the 1st Hunt Juniors' joint-victory with Royall during the Amazing Smath Race (a campus-wide scavenger hunt), we were treated to all-you-can-eat S'mores roasted on our very own grills outside of Hunt.  Nearly every member of the hall participated in the roasting, a much-needed snack break during an especially tough week of projects and tests.  We hope to enjoy many more of these such rewards in the near future!    

Capture the Flag with Second Hill!

September 6th, 2014

Great hall programs incorporate multiple halls, so that members of our hall have the opportunity to meet new people on campus and do things that simply aren't as fun with a smaller group.  The hot afternoon of September 7th was a great occasion for a little bit of competitive Capture the Flag on the Watts Lawn.  With Second Hill, we divided up the teams and used shirts as our flags.  Hiding behind trees, on slopes, and using shadows to disguise ourselves, members of 1st Hunt used some serious cunning to outsmart the other team (along with pure swiftness).  Overall, it was a fun event that was enjoyed by everyone, and is just an example of the kind of unique programs we can do as a hall when we live at such a place like NCSSM!

Hall Program: "Letter to Your Future Self"

Wednesday 8/20 Letter To Your Future Self

Two Wednesdays ago, we gathered in main lounge to write letters of advice, remembrance, and congratulation addressed to our future selves. Once the letters were signed and sealed we entrusted them to our venerable Jared, who has locked them away not to be opened again until the culmination of this academic year.  A big part of this program's worth comes from the laughter and nostalgia that everyone finds at the end of the year.  We laugh at what we thought "back then," in August, and look deeper to see what of our hopes and desires we actually accomplished during the school year.  Besides being a neat thing to come back to with the passing of time, the "Letter to Your Future Self" is a great way to really see how far one has come in just one year.

 

Getting into the swing of things- First Trimester and On Hall-Programs

With already three weeks behind us at NCSSM, 1st Trimester underway, and the first tests and essays of the year being assigned, Hall programs are a great way to balance schoolwork with fun, social, stimulating activities on the hall.  First Hunt has a planned program of some sort nearly every day- whether its a trip to the gym to play Dodgeball, a game of cards, or a sleepover in the Main Hall lounge.  Throughout the week, First Hunt, in addition, bonds through a variety of other activities.  IM Games, Hall Food, and hanging out together in the lounges are among these.  

In addition, this year First Hunt is trying something new when it comes to programming.  Each week, a member of the hall will be required to plan, advertise, and execute a program of their own creation.  Last week's program was done by Noah Gavenus- where he taught members of the hall how to sign up for a fantasy football league (First Hunt has its own bracket).  

In other news, the hall is getting into both the academic and social swing of things at NCSSM.  This year's Junior and Senior classes (on hall) have bonded well as a group thus far and have been very active and successful at the Intramural Soccer Games and at school-wide events such as the amazing SMATH race, which First Hunt won this year!  

Finally, I want to introduce a way of better communicating what sorts of things First Hunt is doing specifically, so blog viewers can be more informed of the amazing things we're doing here.  In order to better relay what's happening on hall and at NCSSM in general, the blog will be updated with a program or two each week with a short write up telling a little bit about what's going on.  

For starters, a short description of a fun game on First Hunt called "3 Men on A Couch".

Three Men on a Couch.

 

Three Men on a Couch is a game where each person writes a one-line summary of a story and gives it to the leader of the game, not letting anyone see what they wrote. The leader then chooses one of the pieces of paper and each of the three guys have to create a story based on that. One of them will be true and the other two will be a lie. It is the audiences job to figure out which one is telling the truth. That evening we were enthralled with storied about "a wolf bit my shoulder" "The police chased my car and I got away" and more. Most of the stories were fairly good, some (Cole) just disregarded the chosen paper and told their original story anyway, but it was all a lot of fun.

A lot of information in this post.  But that corresponds to the large amount of things going on on First Hunt!  

1st Hunt Trip to Duke Gardens: 2014

As if there weren't enough to keep us First Hunt-er's busy during the First weekend of school, First Hunt also visited the beautiful Sarah P. Duke Gardens on August 24th.

The Duke Gardens trip is a special, annual event that First Hunters usually remark as one of their Top Hall Programs for the entire year.  Duke Gardens has a lot of significance to individuals on hall because it is both an awesome, fun program and a time that First Hunt comes together, sits down, and talks a little bit about who we are and what we want to be, both as individuals and collectively, as a hall.  We played Ultimate Frisbee, did Team Push-Ups, and talked- one at a time- about something on our bucket lists.  It's a special time where we spend a couple hours, just as friends, working together to figure out a little more about each other, and become more tight-knit as a hall.  Duke Gardens, in effect, brings us all a little closer together (and the Gardens themselves are incredible!).

First Hunt at the Duke University Chapel

A wonderful Hall picture.

After a busy weekend of having an I-viz, signing T-shirts, going Stargazing with 2nd Beall, and visiting Duke Gardens, First Hunt-ers were pretty worn out, as one might imagine!  But such is the life of a student at NCSSM.  Fortunately, most of us enjoy that sort of thing!!

On the way to the Gardens

Hanging out at the Fish Pond

T-shirt Signing Dance 2014

A famous tradition at NCSSM is the annual T-shirt signing dance, which is the first school-wide dance held each year.  In order to participate in the T-shirt signing dance, each person must bear a blank, white, T-shirt and a sharpie of some color- their tools for taking full advantage of this event.  In addition to simply being a fun, school-wide get together, though, the T-shirt signing dance is a great way to get to know more people (especially their names), and expand social circles.  After the event, (assuming the shirt has survived through the washing machine), everyone has a neat reminder of the fun (and the friends) that impacted his or her life here at NCSSM.

Convocation 2014 !!!

August 19, 2014

Convocation- in Latin- literally means "a calling together."  Convocation at NCSSM is a special ceremony where students, faculty, and special guests gather together to celebrate the start to a new academic year. In addition, hundreds of parents, alums, and others tune in to the Convocation ceremony via live-stream, to be a part of the occasion as well.  Each year, as tradition, the ceremony consists of a speech by the Chancellor, a guest speaker (usually an NCSSM alumnus), and the elected Student Body President.  This year's Guest Speaker was Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, an class of '04 Graduate, who has since attended Harvard and Yale Universities, and worked in Political Science.  She served on the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 Presidential Election as the Deputy National Press Secretary, and has written about topics such as religion, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation for the Supreme Court as well as NPR.  Rebecca's speech was generally well-received by the NCSSM community, and her words were especially potent given that she was a more recent graduate of NCSSM.  

First Hunt 2014-2015 in front of the Old Watts Hospital

After the ceremony, there was a reception on the Bryan Lawn, where students, faculty, and the special guests will socialize and take lots of pictures.  Convocation is always a great way to start off the new year: everyone is all dressed up, and it is really a memorable occasion.  Additionally, First Hunt traditionally takes a Hall Picture on the steps leading up to the Old Watts Hospital Building. 

With Convocation over, we, the NCSSM community, have officially begun a new academic year.  We look forward to an amazing year ahead of us!  

First Hunt looking nice before the start to the ceremony!

The Faculty, Orchestra, and Special Guests at Convocation

We're excited for this year!