This year’s iteration of a long-standing engineering tradition captured the essence of teamwork, with Sci ’27 successfully climbing the Grease Pole.
Sci ’27 captured the tam from the top of the Grease Pole after two hours and 28 minutes in the pit on Sept. 10.
“The Grease Pole was a resounding success this year!” Engineering Society (EngSoc) President Aidan Shimizu said in a statement to The Journal.
Almost all first-year students attended the Grease Pole event, with an estimated 390 upper-year engineering students and 250 FRECs in attendance. There were no injuries, and the paramedics weren’t used during the event, according to Shimizu.
For first-year engineering student Nathan McDonald, being in the pit and climbing the pole with the rest of his year was an orientation highlight.
“Heading into the day, I think everyone was pretty tired. Then you see the pole, and then you’re there with everybody else. It’s exciting to kind of charge on into it,” McDonald, said in an interview with The Journal.
McDonald’s description of the Grease Pole went beyond fighting to get the tam. Instead, he saw the event as a metaphor summing up the nature of engineering at Queen’s as being part of a team.
“In this case, it’s a pretty big team. You’ve got several hundred people, and they’re all working together to get one guy ultimately up to the top of the pole and get the little tam off,” McDonald said.
McDonald remembered his own grandfather’s recollections of the Grease Pole tradition and emphasized the importance of preserving it as an enduring tradition within the Queen’s University engineering community.
“When I’m older, I’ll be able to look back at this and say it’s probably one of the best experiences I’ve had at Queen’s, just an overall super fun event.”
According to McDonald, Queen’s, the whole engineering faculty, and his FREC leaders put an emphasis on bringing students together and making sure first-years know they aren’t alone.
“It was the high of my O-Week, and it was a great team-building experience that I can share with my fellow students,” McDonald said.
Tags
EngSoc, Grease Pole, orientation
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