Sunday saw the arrival of participants for Immerse Education’s second session of the summer. Summer Mentors were positioned in Stansted, Heathrow, and in Christ’s College eagerly awaiting their arrival. The students were moved into their rooms for the next two weeks and relaxed in the common room throughout the day.
A Quick First Tour
At 3.30pm and 4pm walking tours set off around the city to orientate the participants and highlight the key landmarks. The groups visited Queen’s College, King’s Parade and Market Square, learning lots of facts about the key central Colleges. Luckily the rain held off long enough for those with long flights to stretch their legs and enjoy the relaxing amble and to take in the city’s historic sights.
The participants then collected in the lecture theatre for a welcome talk delivered by the Programme Manager and Summer Mentors. This was followed by an enjoyable dinner of fish, pasta or a roast dinner in the Upper Hall. Shortly after dinner, ice-breaking games were held in the Yusuf Hamied centre, so that everyone could get to know each other quickly! The mentors started with a mass ‘speed-dating’; a list of quick-fire questions was provided for the participants to ask and answer in 90 seconds.
Icebreaking Time
This certainly broke the ice, with everyone rapidly changing seats, laughing, and certainly not struggling to fill the silence! After the speed-dating was over, the students were divided into teams of 9, to embark on the ‘hat game’. This involved describing, acting and then saying one word in separate rounds so that your team could identify as many famous people’s names as possible, that had been placed in the hat. Everyone was keen to get involved, shouting out answers ranging from Genghis to Justin Bieber! The evening activity ended with a mass game of ‘Biggest or Best’, again played in teams. This involved the performance of a dance, joke and impression, amongst various other things, which was scored by the mentors to determine the winner of the game. Excellent performances of Dutch rapping, intermediate breakdancing and animal noises were just a few of the talents that were demonstrated! After a long first day of fun at Immerse Education the participants then headed to bed.
