Staff members bond while competing in the first Advancement Amazing Race
Teams from the Advancement Office zigzagged across the Boston campus to complete various tasks at 16 checkpoints.
Twelve teams crisscrossed Northeastern’s Boston campus Tuesday in an all-out effort to win the inaugural Advancement Amazing Race.
Advancement Office teams, consisting of about eight people, raced to hit 16 checkpoints around campus amid sweltering heat as temperatures soared into the 90s.
At each checkpoint, teams received a card with questions, tasks and challenges they needed to complete before earning their next clue. The checkpoint challenges included taking a team photo at Richardson Clock Tower, stacking Sal’s pizza boxes outside the Curry Student Center, identifying where certain ingredients in food came from at a station outside International Village, and spelling out IDEA in the tunnels.
But the race was more than friendly competition — it was also an opportunity for learning and connection. Many of the challenges were hosted by campus partners, including Campus Dining, NUPD, and Athletics.
Team members learned about the Institute for Experiential Robotics and received hands-on experience creating projects in the makers space in EXP, gave pitches for venture co-ops at the Sherman Center, explored industries with the greatest student interest for co-op experiences in D’Amore-McKim School of Business, and identified the various global experiences offered across the network at GEO, to name just a few examples.
“The work of advancement is inherently collaborative,” said Diane Nishigaya MacGillivray, senior vice president for University Advancement. “When we understand the cutting-edge solutions our faculty and students are developing — the opportunities for all students to pursue transformational global experiences and co-op opportunities around the world — we are better equipped to advance the university’s mission and priorities with our partners. This retreat reflected the spirit of experiential learning that makes Northeastern special.”
The winning team included Sarah Balal, John Ambrose, Gabriela Hernandez, Caitlyn Capparelli, Sydney Gallop, Yelena Surilov, Shelby Tolar and Robert Dooley.