New Student Mixer

The new students of Exeter gathered on the Academy Lawn to play icebreaker games at the student mixer on Sunday afternoon. The Student Activities department organizes the event every year to introduce students of all grades to each other in addition to International Student Orientation and smaller events held for the prep class.

The mixer featured casual mingling between students and contests that recognized fun facts such as the longest name and youngest person. Prep Kiana Silver won a $10 gift card for having the “coolest type of pet.” She said that she was pleasantly surprised that her bearded dragon had won her money. “I wasn’t expecting to win but the prize was nice,” she said. Although she had not met any new people, she enjoyed spending time with her friends.

Snacks included chips such as Cheetos and Lays, ice cream and Capri Sun. Prep Alexander Norton said that his favorite part was the free snacks. “It was very hot out there, but I got to learn some new names and have nice ice cream,” said prep David Kim.

Although the goal of the mixer was to meet new people, some of the students felt that the interactions were forced and prefered to stay with people they were already familiar with. During some activities, students were split up by age. Norton said that the activities such as the ball toss question-and-answer-esque activity felt a little forced because they had to answer the questions on the ball instead of having organic conversations. Silver agreed, saying that the questions on each ball for the separate groups were the same. “It was a little repetitive and soon became uninteresting,” she said.

Many of the topics were not standard questions the students would necessarily learn from each other in a conversation along the path. Prep Andrew Sun enjoyed the mixer because of the activities he participated in. “I participated in like this game where we had to say what items we would bring on a deserted island,” he said. Although he left early, Sun was glad that he made a new friend.

Prep Nivan Dhir felt that even though it was success, there was some confusion about the organization of the activities. “It was a good experience that allowed me to meet new people, but I wish it would’ve been better coordinated,” he said. Some students had only showed up for the snacks and then left without actually attending the event.

Overall, the mixer left students excited for the upcoming year. Prep Jinwoo Kang felt that the event was a success. “It was really nice getting out there and meeting new people. I appreciate the Student Activities department for setting it up,” he said.