S@S 2022 Best Memories

This summer, students from all grade levels gathered at the Stanford University campus for the first in-person Summer@Stanford (S@S) since the pandemic. S@S had two sessions, and each was a week long. In the first session, we had a mix of middle school students and high school students, but the second session was for high school students only. Students at S@S were mainly assigned to different residential houses according to their grade levels (but there were a mix of grade levels in some houses). In Session 1, the seventh-grade students mainly stayed at Roth and eighth-grade students at French House (yes French is the house name). In Session 2, the freshmen were in Pluto House, the sophomores were mainly in Grove House, the juniors stayed at Roth House, the seniors stayed at French House, and some students were in Durand House. During their stay at Stanford, students participated in mini-classes and activities such as Beach Day, Dorm Pride, and Talent Show. In order to learn more, we asked students who went to S@S this year to talk about their best memories.

Adrian (’23), Allie (’24), and Hannah (’25)  loved their dining experience at S@S. “The food was great except for the waffles,” as Hannah and Allie noted, “they were less than exemplary.” According to Adrian, “sitting down and having meals with my fellow OHSers every day at Flo-mo” is something that he enjoyed the most. At OHS, students are spread all over the world, and we rarely have the chance of sitting down around a table together. Thus Adrian thinks that “it is special moments like these where we are able to see and enjoy a meal with each other” that are most unforgettable.  

Beach Day at Capitola is also a favorite memory of a lot of students. Many of them mentioned the experience of burning their feet on the sand while playing volleyball on the beach and said it felt amazing. Peter (’24), Madhava (’24), and other attendees mentioned, in particular, their “Fort Patrick,” which is a star-shaped fort they built in the sand.

Dorm Pride is definitely something that cannot be overlooked. Dorm Pride is a competition between houses that involves a lot of fun “running around and screaming like crazy” according to Peter. There were activities such as dodgeball, painting, and tug-of-war, and each house shouted their house chants to compete with one another. During Session 2, the winner of Dorm Pride was French House, but the juniors from Roth seem to strongly disagree with the result of the competition. As noted by Peter, the juniors had a lot of fun “making up conspiracy theories about biased [referees]” and Alistair (’24) claims that “Roth House objectively, unequivocally, indisputably won dorm pride, and all the meticulous planning that went into tug-of-war and dorm chant [made] that happen.” Roth House members showed their great house spirit as so many of them emphasized that Roth House is the best house and chanted “We Will We Will Roth You” (which is their house chant).

Simply hanging out in the dorm, walking around the summer campus, and chatting with friends are also a lot of students’ best memories. Each house had a house meeting at the end of each day where everyone gathered together. Students also enjoyed organizing their own free-time activities. At Roth House, students participated in ping pong, a chess tournament, fountain hopping, karaoke night, and Rothia—a Roth “rendition of Mafia” which somehow managed to have everyone running around “like headless chickens” according to Madhava and Peter. 

The Talent Show is another highly rated activity at S@S! A lot of students noted that “the Talent Show was amazing!” In particular, we heard from Taro (’24) and his story of performing at the Session 2 Talent Show and DJing at the dance afterwards. 

Taro was deeply moved by his experience as a DJ and noted: “I never imagined everyone would jump on stage and dance during the talent show, but when it was time for the dance later in the evening, everyone's support and reaction surprised me more! There was some doubt initially as to whether everyone would enjoy an electronic-oriented selection of music, but the reactions I received were amazing! Playing some of my own music live for the first time and having everyone jump to it felt magical.”

Being able to live together with all the awesome students for a week is what makes S@S memorable. Many students expressed a lot of thanks to the staff at S@S and a lot of love to everyone who was there.