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With President Rachelle Keck’s first year coming to a close, let’s take a look back and see how one of the newly implemented Grand View University traditions has fared for our students and faculty.  

The idea of Skolfest came about during one of President Keck’s listening tours where she met with various departments to learn about the GVU community. One of the topics raised was the idea of traditions and the kind of opportunities that were available for faculty members to deliberate and pursue. President Keck discussed with Pastor Russ and Kate Faas, the director of the Nexus Institute, about how they would be able to bring Skolfest to fruition. A team dedicated to organizing the event was then created and started to get to work.  

A nod to our Scandinavian heritage, Skolfest was designed to remind students of the mentality and qualities that are instilled in all Vikings. The day started with a traditional Danish breakfast that included aebleskiver, a spherical pancake ball made from fried batter and dipped in jam. The name directly translates to “apple slices” in Danish. The history behind aebleskiver is largely unknown, but a popular myth speculated that a group of Vikings who returned to their ship after a hard-fought battle wished they were able to cook pancakes. Due to the lack of regular kitchenware or flat pans, the Vikings used their helmets and shields instead which gave the cake a spherical shape.  

After breakfast, students and faculty members found themselves engaged in an intense game of tug of war.  

“The idea behind tug of war is to battle and show our Viking heartiness,” Faas said. 

Although Vikings were not known for creating the game, they were notorious for competing in competitions where their strength and endurance were pushed to the limit with the hope of achieving the champion’s title.    

The next was team trivia, where students and faculty were quizzed on various topics about the history of GVU and Viking history. It did not surprise many that most of the quizzes were won by faculty members as they were more knowledgeable about the history of the school.  

Finally, was the skolar plunge. A brutal way to end the day as several students and faculty members were dunked into cold water in already freezing temperatures outdoors.  

“Vikings were really good swimmers. Some of their battles were in the water where they would have to jump out of the boat and swim ashore to battle. That was kind of the heart behind the skoler plunge. You have to be brave and bold to jump into a bath of cold water in February,” said Kate Faas.  

Tory Maruffo, a graduate student, and active member in numerous events around campus found the overall experience quite enjoyable. However, she mentioned a few things about what could have been done better. Tori believed the event would have achieved greater success had they picked a better day to organize the event.  

“I think students would be more willing to attend the event if it happened during the fall semester. They would also have better school spirit earlier in the school year,” Maruffo said. 

This came after the bonfire event had to be canceled due to extreme temperatures in the evening. Maruffo also mentioned that many students didn’t realize activities were going on until the day of the events.  

“I don’t think many of the students were aware of the events that were happening until they walked past some of the activities,” Maruffo said. 

She strongly believed the overall turnout and success of the events would have been tremendously impacted had there been more encouragement and announcements before the event.   

Maruffo also found the events to be quite clustered together, which made her feel she was rushing from one event to another. She suggested that perhaps the organizers could space out events more evenly throughout the day, allowing students a short break in between each one.   

“I think they should also offer food during some of the events. It would be a great way to incentivize students to take time out of their day and attend the events,” Maruffo said. 

Skolfest may not have been a resounding success in its first year, but we were able to catch a glimpse of what to expect in the future. The idea and purpose were carried out with good intentions, but perhaps some fine-tuning is required before we see a more successful turnout in future years. Let’s hope this tradition continues and gathers morwe momentum into this new chapter of GVU under President Keck’s leadership.