After learning that the fall semester would be unlike any other, the Traditions Council set out to create a safe experience that would engage students with the Elon campus and community.
Heading into the fall semester, the Elon Traditions Council designed “From the Flame,” a 10-week scavenger hunt with challenges and puzzles that encourage students to learn more about Elon. It’s a new activity for students during a time when many activities and events have been postponed or shifted to a virtual format due to pandemic restrictions.
“Since we can’t have normal programming like we would usually during the fall semester, we are trying to start something that all students can get involved in and find that sense of community in face of uncertainty.” said council member Sarah Myers ’22.
The Traditions Council, which consists of 13 students from a variety of majors, took inspiration for From the Flame from the University of Chicago’s annual scavenger hunt.
“We put our own spin on it and incorporated some Elon traditions, like the fountains, the buildings, and the acorn and honor coin that we all got as first years,” explained Myers.
The council met virtually throughout the summer to figure out how to bring the challenge to Elon’s campus in a safe and engaging manner. They often drew inspiration from past social media challenges.
“There are a lot of creative minds on Traditions Council,” said Myers. “We all come from different majors and different organizations around campus, which allows us all to bring a different perspective to what clues should be and what people would be interested in doing.”
The Traditions Council, which calls themselves the “Council of Judges,” develop each set of clues on a weekly basis.
“We have really been operating week by week, identifying cool opportunities and challenges we would like to see the teams attempt on campus,” explained council member Malia Takei ’22. “Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Traditions Council meets to brainstorm ideas for the Challenge.”
The council releases the clues on their social media account every Wednesday at noon, which allows each team of three to seven students to plan which challenges they want to complete over the weekend.
Past clues have included creating a board game, lip-synching to popular songs, and searching the campus for a council member dressed as a squirrel.
The team must submit their work to the From the Flame Moodle page by 8 o’clock on Monday morning, and the Council of Judges spends Monday and Tuesday judging the submissions and awarding points.
The council specifically designed the schedule this way to ensure that students had something to look forward to each weekend.
“We really want students to enjoy this semester as much as possible,” said Myers.
The current first-place team, “Los Billys y Las Botas,” are making the most out of the hunt and are staying engaged with the clues each week.
Team captain Aoife Judge ’24 is grateful that the challenge has helped introduce herself and her teammates to the Elon community.
“My roommate and I were looking for ways to get involved at Elon, especially with fewer in-person activities. I stumbled across it on Instagram and I liked the randomness of the rules and instructions and thought it would be a less serious way to get involved while also exploring Elon,” said Judge.
Both council members and participants were enthusiastic about the creativity of the challenges and showed appreciation for the knowledge of Elon that the challenge has provided them.
“In a prior week, we had team members join the Council of Judges on Club Penguin at a specific time. They were tasked with meeting us on the iceberg in Club Penguin on a specific server. We had a snowball fight and also asked them to solve a riddle,” said Takei.
Judge expressed her enjoyment for the “Shop Small” challenge, and Myers liked the movie poster creation challenge, as there is an abundance of creative minds at Elon, and she enjoyed seeing the students put their own spin on the challenge.
The Traditions Council plans to hold a version of the challenge each semester. The hunt provides engaging activities that allows students to make new friends and strengthen their relationships on campus.
“The Challenge has built in aspects to encourage students to explore more of campus and learn more about traditions,” said Takei. “It also provides an opportunity for returning students to explore different aspects of campus and perform fun tasks with their friends.”
Myers, who is looking forward to holding the challenge again, explained the council’s plan to release the clues once or twice a month instead of weekly, to provide students with more time to complete the items on the lists.
“We don’t want students to feel like this challenge is just another set of things on the to-do list. We want them to enjoy participating and feel like it’s more fun than it is work, especially since some of the clues involve solving different riddles,” said Myers.
Judge and her teammates are passionate about the scavenger hunt and encouraged their peers to get involved in future challenges.
“I definitely learned a lot about Elon and the events happening, from trivia nights to movies, and the resources available to students, like the Maker Hub. I also learned about my love for teamwork and leading a team and I’ve gotten to know my team members very well through the semester so far!” said Judge.
The Traditions Council is looking forward to evolving the challenge over the next few years so that all students on campus will be involved in some way.
During its eighth week, the Challenge is encouraging students to attend Halloween-themed events across campus, while motivating the teams to stay resilient and optimistic in an unpredictable semester.