Students have found an unusual way to cope with missing being on the Colorado College campus: recreating the CC campus virtually in Minecraft.

Over spring break when Katie Wang '22 was playing Minecraft with Eliza Merrall '22, she suggested they recreate the CC campus.

Initially their goal was to build the entire campus. They were quickly overwhelmed by the scope of their project. Recruiting fellow students made the plan more feasible and soon work was underway building Tutt Library. Although skillsets differ, the video game is easy to learn. Arity Sherwood '22 had never played before while Patrick McGinnis '22 started playing in middle school.

Over several days, they built the library shell, with Daniel Turevski '22 also collaborating on the project. They used library floor plans scrounged from the library's website along with Google images. They switched to Google maps to aid in establishing approximate size and dimensions. Noting a lack of interior photos of the library, Merrall said they did much from memory, admitting that she and her friends spend a lot of time in the library when on campus.

They divided up parts into sections. Merrall started with the courtyard concrete, Sherwood took on the red ribbon and panels while Turevski built Susie B's., a popular café in the library. They consulted with each other over group facetime calls when in doubt, joking about their "new way to do the Block Plan."

Other people also joined in after Merrall posted to a Colorado College Facebook page about what they were doing. Although only 25 people can "play" at a time, by the end of spring break about 30 people were working on reconstructing the campus. Old friends connected and new friendships were made. Although construction has slowed since Block 7 started, students are still working on the project.

-- McKinley Sielaff, academic engagement librarian