Despite the rigorous academic life during weekdays, Kent can be a place full of fun and creativity on weekends. For every student, weekend life is a shared yet unique experience, which reflects his or her own special life style. Some students are always actively engaged in the dances, outdoor movies, and other social events, while others prefer to go to town, grab a cup of Kent Coffee, and hang out with several friends in their own rooms.

Blue Key, the group that organizes of weekend activities with the help of supervisor Mr. Valitutto, always strives to create relaxing and meaningful events to enrich students’ weekend lives. To the delight of food lovers, Saturdays are usually packed with all kinds of food-based activities, such as make-your-own-guacamole or chocolate fountain dipping. For game fans, the dorm wars, board games, trivia, and other competitive activities are excellent ways to spend the nights. Social events like dances, outdoor s’mores, and ice-cream socials are great chances to have fun, meet new friends, and blow off some steam. On Sunday, you can hop on the bus to the Danbury mall or enjoy swimming in the pool.

When asked about the most popular weekend activity, Mr. Valitutto, who is in charge of the blue key events, pointed out, “the food-based activities and the dances are always guaranteed to be popular, but surprisingly the board games and the sunday trips, such as hiking trips and apple-picking trips, don’t usually attract that many students.” To encourage students to participate in all these activities, Mr. Valitutto is now seeking suggestions and trying to advertise the events more through emails and formal dinner announcements. “The problem with the board games and other similar events is the difficulty of getting the first people to play. Sometimes, people just come and leave because they feel like there aren’t enough people to start the game. Once enough people do it, it will definitely start attracting more and more students to come,” remarked Mr. Valitutto.

Regarding the issue of blue key events, students all hold different opinions. Proud Tantasathien ’18 expressed her gratitude towards the activities blue key organizes: “I like all the blue key events especially ice-cream social and the roommate game last week Mr. V hosted.” She further suggested that “there can be more mall trips and more competition activities” to attract students’ interest.

Personally, I think competitive games and rewards such as prizes for winners will definitely raise students’ incentive to participate the activities. Overall, students are generally very interested in all the blue key ideas including the board games and Sunday trips. Sometimes they just lack a little “activation energy” to meet the threshold. Perhaps a little friendly competitiveness may help students step out of their bubbles and be engaged in a more fulfilling weekend life.