My name is Halsey and I am one of the TA's at Crystal's Peninsula Bridge. It has been an exciting few weeks. Last Tuesday, we took the students to Stanford and UC Berkeley for University Day. They spent the day touring the campus and learning the history of the schools, and learning what it is like to be a student at Stanford and Berkeley.
Since I'm much more familiar with Stanford's campus and am a 7th grade advisor, I organized the Stanford trip. First, I took the seventh graders on a tour of the campus. We started by the track and walked over to the Oval, the Main Quad, and Memorial Church. We stopped to look at the Renoir sculptures near the Main Quad as we walked in. The kids had a great time looking at the sculptures and posing like the sculptures. The students were favorably impressed by the mosaics at Mem Chu. An organist was playing in the church when we walked in. It was a bit spooky, but it definitely added to the atmosphere.
We also took the kids up to the observation platform of Hoover Tower, which is the tallest building on Stanford campus. The students were able to see the huge, recently completed Stanford Stadium, the Oval, and the front of Mem Chu from the top of the tower, so it was a great way to take in just how big Stanford's campus really is.
Next, we walked to Tressider to eat lunch, and then the students started a scavenger hunt. The evening before, I wrote clues, put them in sandwich bags, and taped them in various parts of the campus. We broke up into advisories started to look for our next clues. I also included a sheet of trivia for the students to fill out. If they listened to what I was telling them during the tour, they would be able to fill out at least half of it. For the other half, they were allowed to ask people on campus. I was really proud of my advisory group when they finished the scavenger hunt first and then filled out the entire trivia sheet. It took them a while on some of the questions, such as "How did Tressider get its name?" and "What is the only just freshman-sophomore dorm on campus?", but one of my advisees, Fernando, was unstoppable, and wouldn't stop asking people until he found the right answer. Unfortunately, one of the groups did get lost a few times, but it became a valuable lesson in map-reading skills.
Finally, at around 2 pm we started to head back to the vans. Our feet were tired (Stanford's campus is huge!) but it was a fun and exciting trip to one of the world's top universities, and it was a great opportunity for the students to see a college campus.