On March 25, the sophomore grade departed for a retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains. Due to COVID-19, the Class of 2024 missed out on the annual freshman overnight event as well as other travel opportunities, marking the retreat as the grade’s first overnight experience together. Even though the retreat was only one day long, activities included hiking, capture the flag and a s’mores event.

Sophomore Alisha Jain felt that some of the retreat’s specific activities 

 pushed her to connect with classmates. “We did many activities that required us to have lots of trust in each other,” Jain said. 

Sophomores Willis Johnson, Allie Bienaime and Patrick Gallighan agreed that the trust-building activities throughout the trip were effective. “I was able to get really out of my comfort zone,” Johnson said. According to Bienaime, her favorite activity during the trip was rock climbing. “I talked to a lot of new people while we were hiking up and climbing,” Bienaime said. Similarly, Li enjoyed rock climbing the most, and was happy that students were given freedom to decide what activities they wanted to participate in.

Jain liked that these activity groups were organized randomly, rather than by each advocacy group, so that people could get to socialize with others they didn’t already see regularly at school. “In the past few days, since the retreat, [the grade] has all definitely felt more together,” sophomore Sage Huddleston said.

For Johnson, the retreat’s structure didn’t only help him socialize with friends; to some extent, it also helped him meet new people. Although the Class of 2024 had been together for about a year and a half prior to the retreat, the COVID-19 pandemic made meeting everyone in the grade difficult. As a result, Johnson was familiar with his friends and people from in-person classes, but there was still a remaining majority of students that he’d never gotten a chance to meet. “Even though this is surprising, at the retreat, I finally got to speak to people I didn’t know the names of,” Johnson said. 

Li and sophomore Madison Brown thought that the retreat was also successful because it was one of the first whole-grade Menlo experiences that did not revolve around academics. “I liked that we were all together outside of a school setting,” Li said.

“[The retreat] gave [my grade] a good bonding memory, which we’ve never gotten to experience before at school in class,” Brown said.

According to Brown, the second half of the retreat consisted of activities that divided the students into four groups. As a result, Brown felt that she was only able to bond with those certain people. “I got close with the people I was split up with,” Brown said. Brown enjoyed this experience because she got to know her group better, but this also meant that she was temporarily limited to a certain number of people in her grade that she could socialize with.

Similarly, Li thought the retreat helped him bond specifically with the people in his cabin room at night. One of his roommates, sophomore Eric Feng, agreed that everyone bonded a lot in the cabin as the night went on. Li also believes that the retreat could benefit from slightly more time. “Maybe one more day would have helped the grade grow closer,” Li said. “I still feel like the retreat definitely helped, though.” Contrarily, Feng felt that one day was plenty of time. “The retreat length was enough for me,” Feng said. “I needed to start projects the instant I got back home.”

According to Brown, she believes the retreat would have also benefited from a higher attendance. Not everyone attended the overnight event, partially because of Menlo-related conflicts, such as sports. “I wish there was better planning around conflicts,” Brown said. “It felt like a lot of people couldn’t go or had to leave or arrive early.” Even though the retreat couldn’t accommodate the schedules of every single student, Brown believes that the grade would have bonded better with everyone present.

Sophomores Hunter Ryerson and Zaila Vazquez were both unable to attend the sophomore retreat due to other commitments. According to Ryerson, he regretted his decision immediately afterwards. “I really wish I was able to attend the retreat,” Ryerson said. “Looking back, it was dumb to prioritize something else. Most of my friends said the experience beat their original expectations, too.” Similarly, Vazquez heard from her friends that the retreat was fun, and she hopes for another all-grade event in the near future where more people are free to attend. However, Vazquez does not necessarily feel like this was a completely missed opportunity.

According to Jain, even though she considers the retreat a successful bonding experience, she’s unsure if this all-inclusive energy will continue for the rest of the school year. “I don’t think there’s a monumental shift [in grade closeness], but everyone still got to make friends and have a good time together,” Jain said.