Tufts advertises its connection with the lively and culturally rich city of Boston in nearly all of its promotional materials, but Jumbos themselves may find the metropolis daunting when left to find their own way around.
Sophomores Will Kent and Ian McClellan got together with their friends and started exploring the city on the weekends during their freshman years to fully experience their time near Boston.
Soon, others joined in. "I ended up finding out that a lot of my friends wanted to do the same thing, so we thought that forming a real club would be a great way to share the chance to explore," McClellan said.
Kent and McClellan chose the name "Boston T Party" to represent their city adventuring group.
"This year we wrote a constitution at the beginning of the fall semester, and we passed as a club with TCUJ [the Tufts Community Union Judiciary] at the beginning of spring semester," Kent said.
"We barely made the deadline to become a club - I think we got in on the last day," McClellan said.
Because of its late entry to the Tufts scene, Boston T Party has so far remained relatively small.
But with only a few months under its belt as an official Tufts group, Boston T Party has managed to cover many of the unique and interesting parts of the city.
"We took a tour of Fenway, we went out for dim-sum, we went on a bunch of walking tours downtown through Chinatown and the financial district and we also went to a cartoon animation festival at the Brattle Theater," Kent said.
According to McClellan, there's a rhyme and a reason to Boston T Party's ventures.
"We try to pick places that seem interesting beyond single landmarks or tourist attractions - cultural neighborhoods are great, for example. One idea we just got was to visit abandoned subway stations in Boston," he said.
Deciding on a location has never been much of a problem for the group, either. "We made our meetings democratic so that people would be more interested in going places that they want to go to," McClellan said.
But the founders are conscious of potential challenges: "One of the problems that I worry about is finding common interests," Kent said. "But if the group gets bigger, then that means that more people can go to more places."
Kent added, "It would be cool if the group could split up and cover more ground, then come and report back to each other and say that a certain exhibit was really cool or that a museum wasn't that great."
For McClellan, the most exciting part of exploring the city is the spontaneous aspect.
"The best part is just walking through a city and finding things to do that you wouldn't think to do on your own," he said.
"My favorite trip happened when we got off at Park Street, walked through an area with all these gorgeous old townhouses, went through Fanueil Hall, walked through the Holocaust memorial, through downtown and then ended up in a small pastry shop in the North End called Maria's - which is better than Mike's," McClellan said.
Kent's favorite part is discovering fresh places.
"I love finding something new, like going to a new restaurant, or seeing a cool building or meeting a new person while I'm in Boston," he said.
Since Kent believes there are always "new" things to discover in the city, he's not worried about people getting bored with the club.
"I think it would be really difficult to run out of things to do in Boston!" he said.
McClellan and Kent like to share their knowledge with others. McClellan had some advice for foodies: "The cookies at Finale were overrated, and I should have gotten a milkshake instead of a lemonade at Bartley's," he said.
For baseball fans, McClellan had a helpful hint. "When you go to Fenway, go earlier in the season," he said. "Because if they're getting ready for the season, they won't let you on the field or in the boxes."
For the future, Kent and McClellan are planning to start a blog to keep track of their trips and to post reviews of locations, restaurants and venues.
In addition, they said they'd like to get funding from the TCUJ to be able to afford tickets to museums and cultural events.
"We're hoping to do a better job of getting our name out there," McClellan said.
"We're still getting off the ground, and we're establishing ourselves as a student group," Kent added. "We're excited for where we can go as a group and where we can go in Boston."
