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Aug 25, 2025
The Year Begins at the IRC
The International Residential College (IRC) Welcome Picnic, which took place on August 25, is our annual tradition that marks the start of a new academic year. This fall, it also was the start of my journey as the community's newly elected Minister of Community Operations.
On a warm afternoon the day before classes were set to begin, nearly 300 people gathered to welcome the year ahead.
I spent most of the day greeting students both new and old, running around in the final preparations for the event, catching up with familiar faces, and getting to know our community as it came back to life. The picnic brought together not just residents, but faculty, administrators, alumni, and faculty fellows, representing more than 50 countries from all around the world. That overlap and diversity of perspectives is part of what makes the IRC so special.
As the afternoon unfolded, conversations stretched, laughter carried, and our lawn along Emmet Street slowly filled with small groups forming and reforming. Before classes fully took over and schedules tightened, the picnic offered a moment to simply be together. As a longstanding IRC tradition, it reminded me that community here is not built through grand gestures, but through showing up, year after year, and making space for one another.