Trick-or-Treat

Halloween was a spooky affair at Minds Matter this year.

With plenty of sweets for all, Saturday session was festive and uncharacteristically hyper. Mentees and mentors dressed in creative group costumes and battle-walked their way down the runway for prizes and bragging rights!

Sophomore Mentee Michelle Tan decided to be The Three Musketeers with her mentors, Erin Welke and Anusha Mohan. The trio wielded plastic swords and sported matching boots during session.

“My favorite thing about the Halloween party was admiring the creativity of the other groups’ costumes,” said Michelle. “Honestly, I didn’t expect many people to dress up, but I was pleasantly surprised by the turn out.”

Mentors were equally impressed with the team spirit.

Senior Mentee Alan Deng and his mentor Azad Zahoory dressed as the 49ers. After years of involvement with Minds Matter, Azad enjoyed the novelty of the first annual costume contest. He liked the group catwalks best, and ran a pretend play down the runway for extra cleverness points.

Fresh-faced Sophomore team: Mentee Joanna Hernandez and mentors, Anisha Bhatnagar and Ashwin Ravi, embodied inventiveness. Their spin on actualizing the idiom: “raining cats and dogs,” awarded them first-place.

“It was great to see how much fun the mentees were having,” said Ashwin. “While I hope we’re providing valuable guidance during our sessions, it’s always easier to connect over a silly costume rather than editing a writing assignment. Plus, some of the runway moves were pretty impressive!”