Ok guys, I am going to get into a really detailed description of my weekend with the Quest Scholars Network, (if you haven't figured out, this is also a journal of sorts), feel free to skip or browse, but don't say I didn't warn you.When Christina dropped me off I was a little nervous, I was going to meet all of these new students that have probably been bonding all day, what was I, a senior?, doing with these younger people. Fortunately it was not horrible as I feared, I checked in, and got to know a few of the liaisons. Anyway, we headed over to the Quest offices, which is a house not far from the Stanford campus, or the hotel. It was nice to get a look into the organization that is responsible for my being at Vassar- I have no delusions about that, Vassar is an amazing school but I would have never heard of it had it not been for Questbridge. The building has some history too, the Beastie Boys used to live there and at one point it was a hostel, so clearly, a multipurpose building. And it is a magical building, the things that go on there every years ensure that many hundreds of high-achieving, low-income students attend a wonderful university, debt free, every year. (As you can see I am a little biased). It was nice to visit the various offices in the building and discover what was necessary to keep the organization going.
After touring the offices, more of the liaisons turned up, and we headed out to the Standford campus. There we got to know Nancy, the director, a little better- she said that we would all be friends for life at the end of our time together, I was a little skeptical then, but I know now, with 100 percent certainty that if I call any of them and need a place to stay, that I will have a place (spoilers, sorry).
One of our first activities was to go tour the art museum on Stanford campus, which I can admit, I did not mind at all. I had fun interpreting a contemporary piece for some of the other students, and later on walking through a giant maze of 2" steel. My favorite though were the Robin's, I never know that the thinker was part of a larger piece based off of Dante's Inferno. I just love the sculptures, there are so many angles and its another kind of beauty.
Quest fed us well that night, we had a great mixer with pizza on the "Oval" which is kind-of the center of the Stanford campus. Simply gorgeous, after Texas's heat it was great to sit on thick grass in 60 degree weather, now that is something that I could get used to. All in all, it was a great omen of things to come.
