Homecoming: Day 2

Day two of Homecoming is packed full of exciting events all over the university. I started having breakfast with the Pep Band, their family and band alumni.

I then went to watch the Pumpkin' Chunkin' competition with my friend Quintin and his family who had driven all the way from Cleveland, Ohio to visit. The purpose of the Pumpkin' Chunking' was for the engineering students to build structures which would propel a pumpkin as far as possible. The piece of pumpkin to get closest to the target was measured and recorded as the team score. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Pumpkin' Chunkin'

Next stop was the Family Fun Zone where the ice surface of Ritter Arena had been covered over to allow the installation of jumping castles, children's rides and arcade games. We all had a go at 'brain painting' which used brainwaves instead of hands to create art work.

Creating Brain Art

Later in the day I was able to see a presentation by Brandon Stanton, created of the blog Humans of New York. He spoke candidly about his experiences and the importance of persistence, following your passion, and the role of failure in creating success.

Brandon Stanton presenting in the Gordon Field House

The day ended with a sequence of Pep Band events that involved playing on the steps at RIT's Global Village for the Hockey Send-Off, travelling on a yellow school bus to Blue Cross Arena in Rochester City, and then playing in a packed arena while RIT Tigers played against the University of Connecticut Huskies. The atmosphere was amazing with the stadium looking like a sea of orange as the crowd was dressed in the RIT colours. The Pep Band greatly swelled in numbers as alumni came back to join the band for the game.

Pep Band flute section

RIT Pep Band