Family Weekend for the Class of 2025 will take place from April 29 through May 1. Throughout the weekend, friends and family will be able to attend lectures, campus tours, a Dartmouth-themed trivia night, acapella performances and other assorted activities, according to Family Weekend co-chair Dashiell Advincula ’25.
Families of first-year students were mailed a physical invitation this past winter, which included instructions on how to register online for free, according to student life assistant director Jenny Adams. Adams said “about 1500” people registered for the event, matching previous years’ attendance rates for Family Weekends from before the pandemic.
An email sent to the Class of 2025 by the Class Council outlined programming for the coming weekend, which includes postcard writing and “Cones & Class Council” — an ice cream event — on the Collis Center patio. Collis will also host a welcome event on Friday for families in Collis Commonground, where attendees can meet with student organizations from various offices from the Division of Student Affairs, according to Adams.
In addition, Allen House will host a family weekend brunch on Sunday, according to an email sent to first-year students in Allen House. Advincula added that he and his Family Weekend co-chair Mariya Vahanvaty ’25 will run a Dartmouth-themed trivia night on Saturday, while families can also enjoy lectures and performances throughout their visit.
According to Adams and the Family Weekend website homepage, the weekend has been organized primarily by students such as Advincula and Vahanvaty. Adams said the students’ main role has been to connect with different organizations in order to help facilitate some of the programs that will occur. Family Giving and Engagement also provided support for the event.
“Our job is that we liaison with other groups,” Advincula said. “We’ve kind of taken the lead in terms of reaching out to faculty to have lectures to show to the parents. We’ve also planned some of the events and we’ve been reaching out to acapella groups for the big acapella showcase. ”
Students have expressed excitement for the upcoming festivities.
“It’s a lot different now compared to the beginning of the [academic] year,” Mihir Bagul ’25, whose family is visiting for Family Weekend, said. “When [my family] dropped me off, I felt very sad and lonely because you never know if you’re gonna make that many friends, but now looking back at it, it’s a lot better. It’s nice that they are now coming up, and I have a solid friend group and strong footing here.”
Family Weekend also coincides with Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. According to chemistry teaching science fellow Maryam Aswad ’21, a first-year student brought the overlap to the attention of Student Involvement, which responded with updated programming. Collis reserved the Top of the Hop for Al-Nur Muslim student organization’s Friday prayer and discussion, and will also sponsor the organization’s Sunday Henna charity event at One Wheelock, according to Al-Nur board member Yusuf Ebrahim Med’22.
“When Collis initially set the date for family weekend, they weren’t aware that it coincided not just with Ramadan, but the last couple days of Ramadan which are particularly important,” Aswad said. “Collis has put a lot of effort into supporting us celebrating the last few days of Ramadan and also in allowing us to expand our activities to include the families of the students as well.”
This year marks the first first-year Family Weekend since 2019, as the pandemic temporarily halted on-campus visitors. Family Giving and Engagement hosted a family weekend for the Classes of 2023 and 2024 last fall to compensate, according to Adams. That said, some students said their families visited campus last spring anyway, despite the lack of a formal event.
“Even though there wasn’t an official family weekend last spring, a lot of my friends ended up asking their parents to come and visit, but it was still very hard because, for example, they were not allowed in the library,” Izzy Hamlen ’24 said. “They weren’t allowed to see what their kids were up to in College because of the COVID-19 restrictions.”
Sanjana Dugar ’22, whose parents and brothers visited when she was a first-year, said she remembers activities such as a welcome barbeque in Collis Common Ground and an a capella and dance showcase at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
“It’s really refreshing to see all these excited ’25s showing their parents around because their parents are starry-eyed, the students are starry-eyed, so it’s just a really great atmosphere in general along Main Street and also on campus,” Dugar said. “I remember feeling all those things when I was a freshman, so it’s like a full circle moment . . . it’s bittersweet. It’s bitter because I’m leaving, and it’s sweet because it’s nice to know that some traditions will just keep going.”
Correction appended (May 1, 2:45 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled Dashiell Advincula's name. The article has been updated.
