By Anisa, Orrin, Isabelle, and Violet
The 8am breakfast slowly transitioned into project worktime, and soon we were deep into it—three hours of focus with varying degrees of confidence and success. We kept moving forward, cutting down or building up our data, depending on where we were in our projects. Many of us ran into struggles: some trying to make graphs, others trying to fit too many into their presentations. Nonetheless, we persisted. The time flew by, with Adam, Maya, and Riley offering support and helpful feedback on what to adjust and what to keep. Before we knew it, lunch had snuck up on us, and people began eating and frantically plugging in their inevitably dying laptops.
After lunch came our “brain break,” which was announced as the English camp hike—something we had missed earlier in the week due to fatigue. It was advertised as a short, one-mile walk up a small hill. But I don’t know what mountain-loving giant considered that hill “small,”. By the time we reached the top, everyone was drenched in sweat and gasping for air. A few unfortunate souls hadn’t changed out of their pajama pants and deeply regretted that decision. The misinformation led many astray, and legs were on fire long before the top. But once we made it, we were greeted with an incredible view—and for at least some of us, it was definitely worth the struggle.
After a short downhill walk, we loaded back into the vans and returned to the dorms. Once there, it was time to jump back into our projects—crunch time had officially begun, and many people were in the final stretch. About an hour and a half later, we shifted gears to start our jobs and prepare for our evening guest: Khrista Nicholas, a RED student from the University of Miami who is now an incoming master’s student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
After a delicious dinner of fried rice, we all enjoyed hearing about Khrista’s path thought college and her current topic of study. She had a beautiful presentation with photos detailing her fascinating and incredible journey. Following our guest we all gathered to have a joint movie night, relaxing while watching Finding Nemo with ice cream.