{"id":11808,"date":"2026-07-21T20:03:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/?p=11808"},"modified":"2026-08-02T15:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:34:06","slug":"lounge-life-how-cherubs-used-lounge-spaces-to-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/07\/lounge-life-how-cherubs-used-lounge-spaces-to-bond\/","title":{"rendered":"Lounge life: How cherubs used lounge spaces to bond"},"content":{"rendered":"

After long, rigorous days of conducting interviews, listening to lectures and writing articles, cherubs needed a way to wind down to end their nights, and a common way to do this was by gathering in the lounges of Jones Hall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Owen Zeller of Chicago said he was worried about finding close friends when he initially came to the program, but said he was \u201cfortunate\u201d to have bonded with his friends in the lounge areas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe lounge, it invites community, you have all these spaces to sit down and all these different places that are meant to be for hanging out,\u201d Zeller said. \u201cWe built that community from nothing on day one and made it a really special place.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are four lounges on each floor of Jones Hall, the dorm where the cherubs stayed this year. Floormates have been able to use these spaces to sing together, tell stories and stay connected throughout the four-week program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryder Bingaman of Evanston said it was great to \u201chang out with the boys at night,\u201d and cherishes the lounge experience that bonded him with his peers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all just sit around, tell stories, have fun, have a laugh. It\u2019s really nice because I think we\u2019ve gotten to know each other because of the lounge,\u201d Bingaman said. \u201cIf there was no lounge, I don\u2019t think we\u2019d be as close of friends.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ignas Petrus of Chicago said some of his favorite memories from the cherubs program have come from the lounge, especially the conversations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the place where I\u2019ve definitely gotten closest to the friends I\u2019ve made here,\u201d Petrus said. \u201cWe talk about what\u2019s going on in our lives, what\u2019s going on in cherubs, about the assignments that we\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Activities in the lounges vary daily. Cherubs are commonly found working on assignments, having late-night conversations or listening to music together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bingaman and a group of boys on the second floor often have work sessions in the lounges where they write and report for their assignments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can actually work in the lounge, collaborate, bounce off ideas, and I think it not only makes our stories better because we have input, but it also lets us get to know each other better,\u201d Bingaman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lounge areas are also places of storage for communal snacks and food, often housing a variety of snacks for floormates to enjoy. Petrus recalled a popular example of this being the \u201ccereal bar\u201d from the first week of the program. He and his friends bought boxes of cereal, gallons of milk, bowls and spoons to enjoy on mornings before heading to class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bingaman said the table in his local lounge became a magnet for everyone\u2019s unwanted food.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason, the 70 or so girls that are in this program decided that the boys are the ones that are the people who they give all their food to,\u201d Bingaman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite all the evening activity in the lounges, cherubs abided by quiet hour restrictions, said Pepper Chai of Alameda, California, who was often out of her room late at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur floors do a really good job of actually staying quiet and respecting the people that want to sleep,\u201d Chai said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the cherubs program brought the memories of experiencing Chicago, lectures from renowned journalists and reporting on the Fourth of July parade, the memories made from the lounge experience are what will last the longest, said Charlie Edwards of Evanston.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve formed some great connections with people on the floor in the lounges, we\u2019ve had some great memories there,\u201d Edwards said. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cherubs used the shared spaces to stay connected and form friendships in their free time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":11395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-11808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":340,"is_guest":0,"slug":"patel26","display_name":"Kaelan Patel","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6e87e4a4f2b383c7d3f8ada8897db8cbf997ae4f9f5e3a9e1194b1c6f083dae0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Patel","first_name":"Kaelan","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11808"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12884,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808\/revisions\/12884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11808"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}