Tech’s annual Sting Break event, hosted by the Student Center Programs Council (SCPC), took place March 28 on Tech Green at 6 p.m. All students were welcome and nearly 3,000 stopped by to participate in the fun activities SCPC planned to celebrate making it through the first week back from spring break. Arya Kirpekar, third-year ID and Festivals Chair for SCPC explained what this year’s event was all about.
“It’s a big campus wide carnival kind of like celebrating that we’ve made it all the way past spring break. It’s called Sting Break, the theme this year is medieval so our event is officially the Night of Sting Break. Everything we have is free for students, so we have food, t-shirts, crafts activities, and we are giving away plushies. We have a lot of inflatables, and we also have carnival rides,” Kirpekar said.
Sting Break has been an annual tradition that Jackets have looked forward to for over 20 years. The event has grown in scale and popularity over the years, and SCPC has consistently worked hard to ensure the event’s success and that students have fun. Kirpekar described her involvement with the council.
“This is my fifth semester in SCPC and my third year on our executive board. I love seeing our events really come to fruition. This one we’ve been planning for the past three months, so it’s really exciting to see people actually enjoying it and having fun just like we planned for them to,” Kirpekar said.
For Saumya Bajaj, second-year MATH and Volunteer Coordinator for this year’s Sting Break, this is her second semester with SCPC, and she was excited for all the planning to finally culminate in this year’s event. Bajaj explained in more depth what fun activities were available to students this year.
“We typically have inflatables on Tech Green and have carnival rides in the parking lot right behind the Student Center. Last year we had a Ferris wheel and this year we have two different spinny rides. We also have a bunch of crafts. It’s a really fun time; it’s a really big event, and it’s a lot of work,” Bajaj said.
The scale of Sting Break is what makes the event memorable for Tech students. Bajaj reported that “we usually get about 3,000 students coming through our event.”
In order to prepare for Sting Break and ensure that all the different aspects and activities came together, SCPC began planning at the beginning of the semester. On the day of the event, Bajaj explained that they had “been setting up since about 2 o’clock today and [would] be tearing down until about 11 p.m.”
For the students attending Sting Break, the line to enter the event wove from the far side of Tech Green to the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons entrance. When asked what his favorite part of Sting Break was, Raj Janardhan, second-year MS CS, replied, “spending time with my friends.”
For Yash Arora, MS CS, his favorite part was the “free food and free t-shirts.” Arora continued to explain that “this is actually my first time at Sting Break. I missed it the past few years so I wanted to check it out.”
Van Livingston, fourth-year CS, explained his motivation for attending Sting Break.
“It seemed like fun, you know, Thursday afternoon not really doing too much, so I might as well just go out and enjoy it,” Livingston said. Out of all the activities for Sting Break, Livingston was most looking forward to participating in the scavenger hunt.
Kathryn Metheny, third-year CS, reported that her favorite part of Sting Break was the inflatable obstacle course. She explained that she was not the best obstacle racer, but she “wanted to race [Livingston]” and that she would win between the two of them.
Spring break may be over, but fun events such as Sting Break can encourage and motivate Jackets through the end of the semester. Livingston explained that he was sad spring break was over, but “hopefully this [Sting Break] can bring back some of the fun that we had over spring break.’’
She, alongside other students, participated in many different activities across campus. Gongalareddy expressed her excitement for the event and explained that she thought that SCPC had done a great job putting the event on.