By Maria Iman
Earlier this month, Dominican students and Sinsinawa Dominican sisters bonded over ice cream at the annual Sundaes with the Sisters event in the Social Hall. The events are sponsored by the Campus Activities Board (CAB).
Aldo Cervantes, president of the board, said “students tend to neglect the fact that they don’t know who the sisters are on campus.” He believes this is a good opportunity for students to build stronger connections.
Many students at the event were participating for the first time like student Kassandra Aguilar.
“I found out about this event on Instagram and thought it would be nice to check it out,” she said.
More than 50 students came for ice cream and about a dozen stayed for conversation.
Sister Jane Boland said the “sisters know that most of the time students only like to come for ice cream”, but they still love going to the event.
The sisters were able to pose a range of questions regarding campus life, employment, extracurricular activities, and academics. Students were also able to crack some jokes with the sisters.
“I asked Sister Charlotte if she wanted to skydive with me and she declined,” said freshman Eddy.
Sophomore Jaylene Sanchez said that during her conversation with Sister Beth Meegan, she learned more about the sisters’ history on campus.
“It was interesting to learn that there were about 70 sisters running Dominican,” she said.
Sitting at another table, Sister Charlotte Gould found herself in the company of a group of students who had her laughing from the moment she sat down with them.
“I told a student that I graduated from Dominican in the 1970s and he choked on his ice cream,” said Sister Charlotte.
The CAB has been hosting this event for years. Sister Jane recalls participating in the event as far back as 2011 and said that the number of participants has fluctuated over the years.
CAB leaders and the Sinsinawa sisters were pleased with the turnout of this year’s event.
“There was a huge rush of students within the first 15 minutes, so we ran out of vanilla ice cream fast,” Cervantes said.
Despite the shortages, Cervantes had no plans to switch out sundaes for another kind of food.
“The sisters love ice cream,” he said, “It also rolls off the tongue much easier.”
