Welcome! My name is Serena and I'm a '28 from NYC. I'm so excited to be here at Dartmouth and share my experiences with you! On campus you can find me organizing events at Hillel, hosting socials for the women's club frisbee team, trying every single Dartmouth tradition, and yapping in the library. I also love to run, play volleyball, hike, knit, and read fantasy books! If you want to hear about a city kid's adventures in rural New Hampshire, follow along as I experience life in the woods!
I absolutely love how many traditions Dartmouth has! This past weekend was Homecoming Weekend, and I spent it around the bonfire, hanging out with friends, and cheering on our Dartmouth Football team. In this blog post I will tell you all about my authentic freshman experience surrounding the bonfire!
One of the most essential and hyped up events of the weekend is our giant bonfire. Indeed, I was not disappointed! I was involved in this from start to finish, and I enjoyed every moment of it.
First-years are really involved in this tradition. First, we have Bonfire Chairs, first-years who are in charge of organizing this fun tradition and get to light the bonfire for the entire Dartmouth community! Moreover, the bonfire itself is built entirely by the current first-year class. Our bonfire chairs emailed all the first-year students, telling us that we had the opportunity to sign up for an hour-long building time slot to help construct the bonfire. I was so excited to build a giant wooden structure that would go up in flames a week later, and I immediately signed up for a slot.
Upon reaching the bonfire building site, the center of the Green, I met my five other coworkers. We swiftly donned our safety hats and protective goggles and confidently climbed up the ladder.
Action shot! It felt like I was really high up in the air!
Now was time for the exciting part: manual labor. As you can see from the picture below, there was a giant forklift (how cool). The forklift operator transferred stacks of wood, some were flat wooden crates and others were wooden beams, up to us so we could build up the bonfire. We stacked the crates in the center to build up the interior of the bonfire and have a sturdy surface to walk on. After that task was done, we carefully constructed the exterior of our structure!
Shoutout to my roommate Anna who took a picture of us hard at work as she walked across the green!
With meticulous precision, we maneuvered the wooden beams to build up the exterior walls. The wooden beans were heavy—I could feel my muscles growing stronger each time we picked one up! Anyways, once placed on the edge of the bonfire, we measured and remeasured to make sure our structure was stable, safe, and precisely constructed!
Doesn't this sharp corner just bring a tear of joy to your eye? I know it does for me!
A job well done!
At the end of our timeslot, we disembarked from the towering structure we had helped construct. I said goodbye to the new friends I had made while up there, dusted off my pants and set down my hard hat, all with a satisfied smile at a job well done.
Now comes an even more fun part—Friday night AKA the night of the Bonfire!
We first met at our House Spirit Stations, I belong to South House and our social space is called the Onion, where we were warmly welcomed with free food and special merch! We then took part in the First Year Sweep, which is when all first-years walk to the Green as one community.
Alumni processed in front of us!
Once at the Green, we walked one lap (while, for safety and practical reasons, first years are no longer allowed to engage in the tradition of running their graduating year laps around the bonfire, the class of 1999 famously ran 99 laps around the bonfire!) around the fire while upperclassmen and alumni ringed the fence and shouted encouraging and uplifting messages to us!
It was so hot near the fire! What a transcendent experience.
Here is me and my friend Grace! We took this picture right as we first entered our loop around the bonfire!
What a beautiful thing to witness!
I had so much fun building and walking around the legendary bonfire, and I'm so glad I could share all of my joy with you guys!
Welcome back to Open Doors—your inside look at life in the Woods! This week, Gabe Brigham '26, a psychology and sociology double major, showed me around his dorm room, where we discussed Dartmouth residence halls, classes, and campus life.
On the final segment of The Stretch, we explored other planets, walked atop volcanoes, and went to the very bottom of the Grand Canyon (and back). Read about it here.
