Seniors Celebrate Final Week

The path leading up to the Senior Barbecue was littered with empty plastic cups and water bottles as hundreds of graduating seniors enjoyed macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and beer at the final event of this year’s Senior Week on Sunday evening.

Kicking off with a picnic along the Charles River on Friday, May 11, the week included a trip to Six Flags, a viewing of “Love Story,” and the annual Last Chance Dance.

Sunday’s activities began with the Senior Olympics, a final, fierce competition between the Houses.

“There was a lot of House spirit,” said Julia M. Eger ’14, a senior week student coordinator. “The whole grade chanted, ‘We hate Winthrop,’” during tug-of-war.

Despite the lack of crowd support, Winthrop House won the majority of the Senior Olympic events and ultimately took the first place trophy. Winthrop dodgeball champion William A. Keuper ’12 celebrated by drinking out of the cup.

“We win the Intramural Cup every year,” he said. “Other houses hate us.”

But for many, Senior Week was less about competition and more about closure. Second Class Marshal Lange P. Luntao ’12 emphasized that the week “really does build a sense of community.”

Luntao pointed to tools such as Match12, a computer algorithm that matched seniors based on a list of their twenty crushes within the class, as a way to bring students together one last time.

“It has been wonderful seeing people at the Last Chance Dance and Soirée connecting with their crushes and hopefully creating legacies,” Luntao said. “Events such as the Talent Show really remind seniors of what an incredible group of peers we have.”

Senior Week also featured an outing to Foxwoods Casino, a moonlight cruise, and a talent show, among other events.

“The coolest part is that we do a lot of the traditional events, like Harvard Olympics, and new events, like the first annual scavenger hunt,” said Bonnie Cao ’12, the first class marshal and former vice president of the Undergraduate Council. The scavenger hunt required seniors to run around Boston and act out scenes from “The Social Network” and “Legally Blonde.”

Some blocking groups took Senior Week events to the next level. Eger said she had heard of some blocking groups creating “punch cards” for a competition of how many hook ups they could have by the end of the week.

Julia A. Moore ’12 called the dance floor of Club Royale in Boston at the “Last Chance Dance” an “ice skating rink,” with seniors spilling their drinks and “slipping and falling.”

“UHS was so full that they closed the open bar” at the club, Leslie A. Rea ’12 joked.

But the week was also about keeping people “connected in a meaningful way,” according to Moore. This week, a group of students began recruiting for Launch 2012, an initiative that seeks to connect the senior class after graduation through work on a global social issue.

And for those who can remember, the good times from Senior Week will remain.

“I wish it was Senior Year, not Senior Week,” Moore said.

—Staff writer Nicole J. Levin can be reached at nicolelevin@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: May 30

An earlier version of this article mistakenly included a quote not intended for attribution.