After check-in at 9:50 p.m., Phoebe Measer of Los Angeles and Jack Tergesen from Brooklyn, New York, stood at the top of the stairs in the Great Room— the unofficial podium for birthday royalty. The other 88 cherubs looked up at them and serenaded them with “Happy Birthday,” while the community and academic associates started cutting a half dozen cakes.
The lucky students born between June 28 and July 24 (the program dates) celebrated their birthdays on campus with their new family.
“It was just so special to be with so many awesome people, even though I haven’t known them for that long,” Measer said. “It was a reminder of how grateful I am to be at this program, and to have made 90 new connections.”
Measer said the most enjoyable part of her birthday was going out to dinner with her friends. Similarly, Tergesen said he loved when friends threw him a surprise birthday party that evening. Measer and Tergesen both turned 17 on the same day, making them “birthday twins.”
“My mom ordered ice cream cake, and we had the CAAs make amazing cake that I think everybody ate too much of,” Tergesen said. “It was a really great experience. There’s no place I would rather spend it at.”
Alice Xiao of Beijing celebrated her 17th birthday by going out to dinner at a ramen restaurant with her friends, who took her there to honor a Chinese custom to eat one long noodle on a birthday. (It represents longevity). Her friends wanted to help her do it.
“A lot of my American friends got to know about this tradition, and they were saying ‘Oh, we have to celebrate your birthday, let’s go to this ramen store,’” Xiao said.
On the evening of her birthday, photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner John White was the guest speaker. During his lecture, he asked if it was anyone’s birthday. When Xiao stood up, he gave her a copy of his portfolio, which he signed for her later.
“Then (my friends) also sang a Chinese happy birthday song for me after Mandatory Fun, that made me really feel at home,” Xiao said. “Different people were willing to learn about my culture and willing to celebrate me.”
Lucy Camp of Mountain View, California, was born on the Fourth of July, which meant that she celebrated her birthday by covering the Evanston parade and watching fireworks.
“The most enjoyable part of my birthday was meeting people and seeing people at the parade,” Camp said.
After submitting her Fourth of July assignment, she ended the night of her 17th birthday by Lake Michigan, watching as the fireworks turned the foggy sky different colors.
“Everything felt kind of peacefully out of your control,” Camp said. “And it was just surprisingly peaceful for literal gunpowder going off in the distance.”
On her birthday, Scarlett Ashford of Leesburg, Virginia, celebrated with her friends when they threw her a surprise party with a cake from Whole Foods. Ashford especially liked the card that her friends created for her.
“I was surprised because we’d really only known each other for a week and a half at that point,” Ashford said. “And they already had put so much effort into the friendship, and I was sort of surprised that I don’t really know these people that well yet. But, they already care about me so much.”
