Filling Weekends At NMH: Fun Or Boredom?

Image by Ben Rosenthal ‘27

The ins and outs of students activities at NMH.

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Max Wang ‘25

Weekend activities are some of the most crucial parts of students’ entertainment. The trips organized by the school are always popular among students. Elizabeth Edwards and Hisu Kang ‘26 work behind the scenes to organize mall trips, movie screenings, skating trips, and many other activities. However, besides those activities, many students also used their own way to celebrate the end of a week.

As the main organizer of weekend activities, Edwards has a sense of students' habits on weekend trips. “Certain students I feel tend to sign up for shopping trips exclusively; other students I feel like are interested in experience trips like the trampoline park, the bowling, or the movies,” she said. Students have different preferences, and that’s why Edwards tried her best to set up a variety of activities. She also recognized that many students cannot attend activities due to the limitations of their schedules. “I am seeking to understand more the various arts and athletics schedules on campus to try to anticipate more of those potential conflicts ahead of time,” Edwards said.

As the Chair of Student Life, Kang helped Edwards schedule events and make suggestions on weekend activities. She believes that students’ availability and their enjoyment of certain trips heavily influence their weekend activity choices. “People’s schedules are so busy, so they want to do something that’s relaxing and fun,” Kang said. In order to attract more students to weekend activities, Kang also thought about being specific when advertising weekend trips in order to save research time for students. “Instead of saying a trip to Big Y, it can be grocery run to Big Y, trying to specify certain things you can do there,” Kang said.

Besides attending school-led weekend activities, students also spent weekends on their own, whether with their friends or independently, like Grace Bird ‘25. “I usually go on Holyoke mall trips. These are very fun experiences. Besides school activities, I usually spent time with friends, playing pickleball, watching movies, and sometimes going to watch lacrosse games.” 

Other students prefer student-led activities to school-led ones. An anonymous student said, “I usually put sports games and shows on the dorm TV, and I think that’s a very good chance to hang out with friends…I personally like student-led activities better because students can often relate to each other and understand what peers are interested in.” 

However, some students took different views on weekend activities. Another anonymous interviewee mentioned, “I rarely went on weekend trips because those trips usually take a long time. I prefer to watch YouTube and spend time on Instagram on weekends.” This person then added, “If possible, I want the school to open more places to go [other than]staying in our dorms on Saturdays.”

Some students are also finding it hard to enjoy their weekends. “Last year, I went on a lot of weekend trips, but this year, I only went once every two weeks. I’m getting busier with my schoolwork and activities on campus, so I didn’t have a lot of chances to go out.” said anonymous student A. When asking about the way to improve weekend activities, anonymous student A said, “Food will be a great way to get people to go to activities, so if snacks are guaranteed, that will improve a lot.”

Overall, students in NMH enjoyed both school-led and student-led activities. Even though some students prefer both and others have preferences, most of them found their weekends interesting. Nonetheless, factors like time limitations and repetitive activities still limit students’ capacity to enjoy their weekends. Since NMH is a large and diverse community, scheduling weekend events that satisfy every community member is uneasy. However, the school can still provide more chances for students by opening up more community spaces for student-led weekend activities and supporting more individual dorm activities which students can easily go to. 

Coming back to off-campus activities, as Edwards mentioned in the interview, the off-campus trips will not disappear, because “many students still seek getting off campus as an experience at some point or another.” Kang mentioned providing potential trips to Boston or even New York for students staying in long weekends. However, she admitted that the process can be challenging. “It’s also about planning from a logistical side and an administrative point of view, like how can we try to balance the free time of our students with the school’s budget or the school rules,” said Kang. Before Edwards and Kang figure out ways to balance school budgets, the process of balancing student schedules, feasibility, and other factors to satisfy all students’ weekend lives still seems to be a challenging expedition.