The morning of Oct. 31, Scripps students participated in the annual Scripps Candy Hop, trick-or-treating from various offices around campus in costume.
On Halloween morning, students relived childhood memories while collecting candy from the SAGE offices, the mail center and Human Resources, as well as other campus resource offices.
Starting at 10 a.m., faculty and students dressed as Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” characters, pumpkins, the Statue of Liberty and many more creative costumes, walked from office to office. Onlookers walking to class or from breakfast joined the crowd of trick-or-treaters, chatting about their costumes and shared excitement for Halloween. Small groups and crowds also circled around tables, reminiscing about their favorite candies from childhood.
Maria Mancera, the executive assistant to the president and the organizer of the Candy Hop, said the event fosters a sense of belonging and is highly anticipated every year.
“Over the last couple of years, more offices have joined in hosting treats for the Candy Hop, which creates an ‘open house’ environment and invites our community into spaces they may not have thought to visit before,” Mancera said.
At the Claremont Colleges, the sheer volume of available resources can be daunting for students. Locating these offices is just the first step, but through the Candy Hop, students have gained a deeper sense of community by putting faces to these resources. These offices became easier for Scripps students to seek out in the future.
Students were particularly mesmerized by the cauldron bubbling over outside of the LASPA Center for Leadership.
“Having stops at multiple offices across campus is valuable in many ways. For students, it is a fun and easy way to visit campus resources and learn what each space is like. It’s an opportunity for us as staff to connect with more students,” Shaafi Farooqi, a Scripps career counselor at Career Planning & Resources, said.
“With midterms and everything becoming more stressful, it is really nice to kind of be a kid again and go trick-or-treating.”
The Candy Hop is a tradition that encompasses many of Scripps’ core values of community and accessibility.
“I like seeing people dress up and take part in traditions,” Meghan Curran, a Scripps mail center supervisor, said.
Students appreciated connecting with faculty and staff in a non-official and non-academic context. It can make the community feel closer, and make Scripps’ amazing staff more approachable.
Trick-or-treating is a cherished tradition, but many students said they outgrew it. The practice of walking from door to door asking for candy suddenly seems out of style, and has lost its allure to many.
On campus, students are isolated from the Halloween buzz that is familiar to residential neighborhoods and towns. Come 9:00 p.m., students don’t line the streets in Halloween costumes; instead, they cram last-minute homework before a night out or host movie nights with friends. However, in the safety of Scripps College, it is nice for those who reminisce to partake in the Candy Hop.
“With midterms and everything becoming more stressful, it is really nice to kind of be a kid again and go trick-or-treating,” Emma Sweeney SC ’27 said.