Fine art, Fenway or cannoli? Family & Friends Weekend kicks off with something for everyone
The first day of Northeastern University’s annual family weekend featured campus tours, city landmarks and a sampling of Boston’s most beloved food.
As students and their parents trickled onto Snell Quad for the kickoff of Northeastern University’s Family & Friends Weekend in Boston on Friday afternoon, Christy and Rob Schoenstedt from Chicago pulled their son, Ryan, into a big bear hug.
The reunion for the close-knit trio was brief — Ryan, a first-year biochemistry and political science major, had a test to wrap up before their weekend together could start in earnest. But that didn’t make it any less joyful.
“He’s our only kid in college … he’s our only kid,” Rob Schoenstedt said. “Empty nesting is a rough thing, especially as a small family. You take one leg out of the stool and it’s a very different dynamic.”
But they were happy to see their son thriving in his first few months in Boston. “He loves it,” Christy Schoenstedt said. “He’s leaned into the opportunity, and I think he’s done a phenomenal job.”
The Schoenstedts were among nearly 5,200 registered attendees who came to the Boston campus for a packed program of activities Oct. 24-26. Each year, the mid-semester reunion represents a chance for loved ones to get a taste of their students’ lives at the university.
Friday’s program offered families a wide menu of activity options depending on their interests: photo ops; leaf-peeping; art tours on campus and at the Museum of Fine Arts next door; Halloween festivities after dark. And a big focus was celebrating — and showing off — the city Northeastern calls home.
“We love all of our events, but family weekend is special,” says Lisa Commendatore, the university’s director of orientation and daily programs. “We look forward to these families reuniting, and fall [in Boston] is always magical.”
After registering and collecting event tickets in the Curry Student Center, families sampled soft pretzels and warm apple cider in Snell Quad. Halloween music wafted through the air; students coaxed their parents into photo ops with “live scarecrows” perched on platforms around the space.
Danny Barakat and his son, Gabriel, smiled together in front of a jack-o-lantern-headed figure. Danny had flown in from Washington, D.C., just an hour before, and Gabriel was looking forward to taking his dad out for Italian food in the North End. “I’m a big food person,” said Gabriel, a second-year international business major. “We’ll go to Modern Pastry to get a little cannoli.”
“I’m just looking forward to spending time with him,” Danny said. “I told him it’s his weekend. Do whatever he wants, and we can enjoy it together.”
Later in the afternoon, groups split off for a series of ticketed excursions around the city — all of which sold out, according to Commendatore. Some visitors took a Fenway Park tour or walked the Freedom Trail; others browsed art at the MFA. The Schoenstedts checked out View Boston, the observatory at the top of the Prudential Center building that offers 360-degree, birdseye views of the city. “The Best of Boston Treats” tour participants rode the T to the dessert destination of their choice: either bubble tea in Chinatown, Levain Bakery in Back Bay or Mike’s Pastry in the North End.
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There was plenty on offer for those who stuck around campus, too, like a guided tour of the public art around campus and talks with faculty and staff at colleges including Bouvé and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. The crisp, mild fall air set an ideal stage for a twilight tour of the campus arboretum.
“The schedule is super balanced,” Commendatore says. “There’s something for everyone. If families are super competitive, we have Trivia Night. We have a 5K run if they’re an active family. We have music concerts. We have features of Northeastern they may not have seen during orientation, like what we do within the EXP Makerspace or in the library.”
But for Jill Delasco, the main attraction of the weekend (other than the Saturday hockey game) was getting to see her daughter’s college life up close. “I’m excited about meeting her friends and their families, and getting a closer look at the campus now that she is a student here,” she said.
Delasco’s daughter, Avery Michaud, is a first-year nursing student living in Hastings Hall.
“I haven’t seen her dorm since the day we moved her in,” Delasco said, excited. “We’re going to drop some stuff off now and check that out.”
