Although October has just passed, it seems the memories of this Halloween season will stay in the hearts and minds of many of our QUESTees.

QUEST Creative and QUEST Serves recently hosted their second year of Spooktoberfest where attendees designed Halloween-festive cards and Perler beads charms to donate to children at a local church. As QUESTees worked on their cards and designs, classic Halloween movies and songs played in the background, adding a festive ambience to the event. Maya Byala of Cohort 44 was one of the attendees and expressed her excitement about the event. “Everyone had so much energy and it was really fun doing the crafts,” Byala shared. “You didn’t have to think about anything else like school–just meeting new people, which was really nice.”

At the end of the night, everyone came together and packed up their heartwarming letters and adorable Perler bead designs into goodie bags. After the event, I spoke with one of the QUEST Creative leads, Sneha Patel from Cohort 39, about the inspiration behind the event. Patel revealed that the idea stemmed from QUEST Creative’s desire “to do a fun event [for Halloween] because Halloween is about crafting and [providing people with the space] to hone [their] inner child. At the same time, QUEST Serves was thinking about donating to the children’s hospital, so [they] decided to combine this concept of inner child and the children’s hospital idea together.” I was lucky enough to participate in this event and can honestly say it is a great way to both volunteer and have fun making crafts. If you missed this one, don’t worry! QUEST Creative and QUEST Serves plan to host Spooktoberfest annually, so stay tuned for next year’s event with a fun, new craft to try out!

Speaking of inner child, this semester’s BMGT/ENES190H students in Cohort 43 had an opportunity to express their inner child through a Halloween costume competition hosted by BMGT/ENES190H professor, Dr. Troilo. Students dressed up as Disney princesses, characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Men in Black, and more in order to win the grand prize – dinner at Dr. Troilo’s house! Unexpectedly, two winners were crowned. I had the chance to talk to one of the winners, Jack Campbell, and Dr. Troilo, himself, about this event. When asked about his winning idea, Jack Campbell of Cohort 43 explained how “the first idea someone said was Disney Princesses and [his] group was immediately on board and very excited. The ideas kept flowing as [they] thought about picking princesses, tiaras and going thrift shopping.” Along with dressing up, Campbell also detailed that one of his favorite parts of this occasion was being able to see and compliment other groups’ costumes. During my conversation with him, Dr. Troilo echoed a similar sentiment, particularly emphasizing the joy he saw in the classroom. “My favorite parts were when I took a step back and just watched students… go up to people they may not usually interact [with] and compliment each other and empower each other through their creativity and this expressive art form,” Dr. Troilo said. But, why even host this competition in the first place?

As a QUEST alum, Dr. Troilo of Cohort 9 understands the stress that BMGT190H can bring to QUESTees. “These teams go through stressful situations. Building a product in however many weeks from scratch is not an easy thing,” Dr. Troilo explained. “[This costume competition] was meant to be a way of shedding the academic responsibilities they have and focus on something that has no stakes whatsoever beyond fun and entertainment.” Dr. Troilo also clarified that this competition was his way of ensuring that these QUESTees walk away with something more valuable than just their education–fond memories together. I have no doubt that this cohort of QUEST students will have an experience to reminisce about and friendships to engage in for years to come. 

As the fall season comes to a close and we welcome in the chilly air of the winter months, our QUESTees bring with them these new memories and friendships. We look forward to seeing what other events our QUEST student organizations and faculty members have planned next semester!