Brigid O’Malley ‘29
News Editor
Walking across campus? Eating alone in Kimball? Don’t be surprised if a classmate stops you with questions like, “who’s your dream dinner guest?” or “how is your relationship with your mother?” before promptly asking for your signature. This new possibility began on Thursday, September 18, when freshmen in the Core Human Questions Montserrat cluster kicked off a special assignment: to build meaningful connections with complete strangers.
The activity was inspired by a 1997 study known as the Fast Friends Procedure, which used thirty-six personal questions to create connection between two strangers. By the end of the study, more than half the participants felt they had a real connection with their partner, many formed friendships beyond the experiment, and one pair even married a year later.
Thursday’s event followed a similar format. Students were placed in small groups and asked to swap questions about their emotions, interests, and hopes. Over the course of an hour, students engaged with this task, sharing and receiving personal reflections about their struggles, joys and insecurities. Whether or not similar results as those in the study proceed, the night allowed students a unique opportunity to introduce themselves with not just their names, but with true pieces of their stories, their values, and their futures.
The concluding assignment extends the challenge to the rest of the Holy Cross community. Each freshman is required to engage in two twenty-minute conversations with strangers on campus using the same list of thirty-six questions, before a follow-up event later in the semester. The assignment requires that all members of the community be willing to engage in these conversations and make ourselves open to new connections. Beyond an assignment, the conversations challenge us to move further than quick hellos and small talk and into real understanding, making The Hill feel a little more like home for all of us.
Copy-edited by Ella Woei ’26
Featured image courtesy of College of the Holy Cross
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