ACA holds social event for students


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From brain teasers to major-specific challenges, students will have the opportunity to team up and compete for four free Disneyland tickets at “The Academic Race” today.

The event, hosted by the Academic Culture Assembly, will take place on McCarthy Quad from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Chick-fil-A sandwiches will also be provided to all participants.

“We really hope to mix up the student population because at school, you usually meet people in your major and not other majors,” said Frank Chen, director of the Academic Cultural Assembly. “We wanted to create an event that mixes people of different majors to get together and work toward a common goal.”

The event is loosely based on the popular TV show The Amazing Race and will have a similar set of rules.

Students are asked to form teams of four. Teams will start out at the first station with a problem. Upon solving the problem, they will receive a clue to the next station. The team that completes the problem at the last station with the fewest penalties will be the winner. There will be 10 stations total.

“We want this to be a way for [students] to spark interests in other fields,” Chen said. “We want to get students talking about what they’ve learned in their majors and to share it with each other.”

Although students are encouraged to RSVP before the event, it is not required.

“We’re trying to get 150 students to attend,” Chen said. “Right now we have about 10 to 15 teams, but we’re hoping that more people will come.”

Helen Yuan, campus relations director of the Academic Cultural Assembly, said they did not originally plan for many people to attend the event.

“Our limit is 20 teams,” Yuan said. “It’s the first year, so I’m not expecting too much, but hopefully it will be great.”

Although this is the first time the event has been held, Yuan, who came up with the event idea, hopes it will become an annual event.

“I’m really excited to see if everything works out and if people like the event,” Yuan said. “I think it’s great to let people of different majors interact and to emphasize people’s strengths.”