The Ultimate Grace College Bucket List: 50 Things to Do Before Graduation

When you step foot on campus as a first-year student, you can’t begin to imagine the memories you will create: the people you will meet, the weekend trips you will take, and all of the campus traditions you will participate in. Each student will curate their own college experience, marked with favorite study spots, spontaneous trips with friends, and annual traditions of their own. The Grace College experience could never be boiled down to 50 to-dos on a college bucket list, but we’ve gathered input from current students, alumni, staff, and faculty to compile this list that we believe is worthy of the title: “The Ultimate Grace College Bucket List.”

Grace Traditions 

• Participate in the first year right-of-passage, the Hike, and give it everything you have. 
• Secure a win at the Beanie Bowl homecoming event or another intramural tournament. 
• Get featured in the yearbook publication, Roots Magazine.
• Go on the road with a car full of friends (dressed in red from head to toe) to cheer the Lancers on when they play long-time rival Bethel University. 
• Challenge Sir Red to a race down the sideline at a sporting event. 
• Never miss an Alpha Dining Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
• Attend a midnight show by Grace’s improv comedy team, Back in Five.
• Go to Sophomore Mugging and collect your free Grace College mug!
• Buy your hall t-shirt each year.
• Participate in your hall’s T-shirt Chapel skit — and secure the win of the coveted stuffed trout prize.
• Sign up for the lip-sync battle, an athletic event, or another competition in the Joust. Help your team bring home the gold!
• Sign up to play Paranoia, a campus-wide game of tag.
• Go to every midnight chapel.
• Attend Christmas chapel every year, and enjoy the guest faculty band’s unique renditions of Christmas songs.
• Lead your hall to victory in our annual fundraiser for food banks, Supermarket Sweep.

On Campus Activities 

• Walk, bike, or jog the Winona Lake trails. 
• Catch a ride on the Grace Boat.
• Work a campus job. 
• Play all nine holes of the disc golf course on campus.  
• Go sledding down Alpha Hill on the first snow day of the season.
• Hammock on the trees on Indy lawn. 
• Start a snowball fight on Beta field. 
• Take a night hike through the woods behind Beta. 
• Visit one of your professor’s homes…or even better yet, if you live in an apartment, make dinner for your favorite professor and his/her family. 
• Comment, like, and subscribe to all Grace social media channels.

Events 

• Go to a festival in Winona Lake. 
• Go tubing on the annual Lake Day event hosted by the student activities board. 
• Carve out a Saturday morning to explore downtown Warsaw and buy flowers at the local farmer’s market. 
• Participate in Student Involvement’s annual snowboarding/skiing trip to Michigan. 
• Bike in the Nocturnal, an annual night-time community bike ride. 

Food 

• Order a bento box for lunch at Cerulean.  
• Try every flavor of ice cream at Social in the Village. 
• Organize a chicken nugget eating contest on one of the infamous “Nug Days” at Alpha Dining.
• Enjoy a fresh pizza from Light Rail.  
• Try some of our area’s authentic Mexican restaurants and food trucks.
• Drive to Dirty Dan’s in Kokomo for a fresh donut or try one locally at Rise’n Roll Bakery. 

Off-Campus Activities

• Schedule a day trip with friends to enjoy Indiana Dunes National Park.
• Take a weekend trip to Chicago, and ride the train into the city.
• Take a trip to Indianapolis and take a hike up the 330 steps to the top of Soldier’s and Sailor’s Monument.
• Visit Fort Wayne’s many coffee shops. Put Fortezza, Mocha Lounge, Conjure, and Utopian Coffee at the top of your list.
• Take a winter walk around the Village at Winona around Christmas time and enjoy the lights!
• Watch the sunset from the Adirondack chairs or a hammock on the shores of Winona Lake. 
• Step foot in every shop at the Village at Winona — and don’t miss the annual Pajama Day Sale where many shops offer major store-wide discounts. 
• Go bowling on free shoe rental Tuesday night. 
• Gather some guys/girls from your dorm and take a trip to Walmart in footie pajamas. Buy some ice cream while you’re there!
• Take a long drive around the back roads of Kosciusko County and find a lake or stream you didn’t know existed. (Our county has more than 100 lakes and streams!)
• Ice skate at the Miller Sunset Pavillion in the Village at Winona. 
• Find a church to call home and invest your time, talent, and treasures there!
• Kayak or paddleboard around the perimeter of Winona Lake. 
• Swim to the other side of Winona Lake and back (it’s just over a mile!) 

Are you ready for your Grace College experience to begin so you can start checking things off your college bucket list?  

Learn more about Grace College!