Dorm Hop Welcomes Students to Residential Life
By Lucas Xia ’28
On Friday, September 18, Milton held its first of three Dorm Hop events, opening the Main Campus dormitories to student and faculty visitors alike. East Campus held its open house on October 2, followed by West Campus a week later. At each event, students could roam the dorms, visit available rooms, enjoy food trucks, and take part in activities and raffles in the common spaces of each dorm.
Hathaway House Monitor Lisa Subratie ’27 said the new Director of Residential Life, Christopher Lewis ’15, was instrumental in coordinating the dates, venue, food, and drinks for Dorm Hop. Subratie was key to promoting the open house events to Hathaway students and advertising them at class meetings. Additionally, she and the other eight house monitors meet with Mr. Lewis every two weeks to discuss plans for boarding life throughout the school year
In an interview, Wolcott House Head Alexandra Hamsath commended Wolcott’s student House Council for organizing much of the September 18 event. One student made cookies, another made signs, and residents enthusiastically guided visitors through the house. Watching the scene unfold, Ms. Hamsath said, “This is what student leadership looks like.” She estimated that more than fifty students passed through Wolcott’s common rooms.
Wolcott freshman Thomas Xiao ’30 said he showed other dorms to his friends and took visitors around his room and other Wolcott common spaces. He emphasized that he really enjoyed seeing people’s reactions to “[his] room and [their] common rooms,” comparing dorm facilities, and that the experience was quite similar to visiting other houses.
Forbes House resident Bryan Fang ’30 explained that students tidied up their common rooms before opening them to visitors and decided which rooms to show. Fang showed Frank Li ’30 his room, and they played poker together. Since then, Li has come back to Forbes House to play all sorts of games. Fang then went around to Wolcott House, which he found considerably larger, though he still preferred his own house.
Curtis Sullivan ’28, a junior day student who attended the Main Campus event, said he supports more opportunities to visit dormitories: “We shouldn’t be confined to only the student center,” Sullivan said.
For the Hathaway and Goodwin Open House on October 2, Subratie described the taco truck as “the main attraction.” She said opening the doors and having residents show visitors around their dorms was a great way for day students to “get a taste of boarder life.” She also liked visiting the other houses herself.
Dylan Chu ’29, a day student, attended the West Campus event and spent most of his time in Norris House and Millet House. He played ping-pong and listened to music with friends in one of their rooms. Although Chu had visited dormitories before, seeing these rooms gave him a glimpse of what his peers do “after the school day ends and after I go home.” He described the dorms as a more relaxed place to socialize than the academic buildings, where he usually saw his friends. Chu also valued being able to go in and out of the dorms without going through the usual check-in procedure. “We could just walk in and out,” Chu recounted. He spent most of the evening playing ping-pong rallies with his friends, though he also played against students he did not know well.
Asher Berk ’29, another day student, visited Hallowell House, Norris House, and Millet House. He enjoyed snacks and drinks in Hallowell’s lower common room before a senior gave him a tour. He also saw how his peers decorated their living spaces in Norris. Berk said the visits showed him that boarders have “this place to go chill and relax and be with their friends.”
Day student Gabi Ramos ’28, who previously boarded in Hallowell, took the opportunity to visit Norris House during the West Campus Open House. She described playing ping-pong there and strongly supported giving students more opportunities to visit dorms. “If anything, it made it feel more like a community,” Ramos reflected.
At Wolcott, Ms. Hamsath observed several girls in Classes III and IV coming in, some of whom had never been in the house before. She has since seen many of these visitors return regularly to play pool and hang out with Wolcott students. A few of them had no idea there was a pool table at Wolcott before Dorm Hop.
Ms. Hamsath was happy with the open house concept but did raise a safety point: “It’s also just nice to know who’s here.” She said she would support any future open houses that were more formally structured and planned. If Dorm Hop comes back, she said she would absolutely keep Wolcott student-led and would keep the campus-by-campus format.
Source: Milton Academy
