If you make the trek out of the District’s concrete jungle to a pumpkin patch in Maryland or Virginia, it would be a waste if you turn the pumpkin you bring home into a traditional, gap-toothed and triangle-eyed jack-o’-lantern.
Instead, pull inspiration from your academic archetype at GW to create a one-of-a-kind pumpkin representing your choice of study, whether you’re enrolled in one of the University’s stereotypical majors or one of its hidden gems. Be it a freaky author or terrifying social media apps, use this guide as inspiration for your carving creations. Who knows — perhaps you could coax your professor into letting you submit a picture for extra credit.
English: Mary Shelley
Halloween is the one time of year when a girl can unapologetically indulge in all aspects of her goth fantasies. Take a page from author Mary Shelley, who pioneered the science fiction genre with her novel “Frankenstein,” and combine spooky and sexy behavior.
Literary scholars and historians believe Mary Shelley lost her virginity on her mother’s grave and later kept the heart of her late husband wrapped in a piece of paper inscribed with a poem in her desk. You could use a silhouette of Mary’s face as a stencil or use your imagination to carve her and her beau Percy touching at the tombstones. Memorialize the queen of freak on a pumpkin this season.
Business: LinkedIn Logo
If you’re looking for a finance buff on GW’s campus, you’re sure to find them conducting informational interviews in Duques for the business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, or hounding professionals for a connection on LinkedIn. There’s nothing a business major craves like telling their 500+ connections that they are “thrilled to announce” the “exciting, new opportunity” at a company named after a white guy from the 19th and 20th centuries, like Deloitte, Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs.
As a business major, what better to illuminate with a gourd and a tea candle than your love of LinkedIn? Passersby who see the glowing “in” logo outside your door will be dying to know what the carving taught you about B2B sales.
International Affairs: An Airplane
As an international affairs major, you have huge ambitions, like earning a funded international trip through a Fulbright scholarship or strategically de-escalating the next big world crisis. With your far-reaching intentions, how can you stay grounded?
Represent your interests with an airplane, as you strive to understand and see more about the world around you to craft ideal foreign policy. Copy the generic images of planes you find online, with triangle wings and a cylindrical body. If you’ve got a concentration security policy — scary in itself — and are eager to make a name for yourself as the next big Warhawk, test your artistic muscles by carving your favorite military aircraft, like an F-15 or an A-10C Thunderbolt. Don’t concern yourself with domestic policy. That’s for the political science majors.
Political Science: A Pumpkin that Reminds Us to “VOTE”
Political science majors know better than anyone that Halloween is merely foreplay for the scariest day of the year: Nov. 5, Election Day. Channel your anxiety into a pumpkin this year by carving a one-word reminder: “VOTE.” Any civically minded political science student would rather encounter a demon than someone neglecting their hard-won right to vote. You can get creative with the letters, turning the “O” into a heart to provide a loving reminder to vote or transforming the “V” into a checkmark to brag that you’ve already mailed in your ballot.
Criminal Justice: The Menendez Brothers
There’s nothing scarier to those seeking to bring criminals to justice than a sexy, charming criminal who attracts fans with loose morals and taut style. The Menendez Brothers — or at least the way Netflix chose to cast them in their anthology series released in September — provide a quintessential example of killers with fans who’d kill for them.
Thousands of edits thirsting over the actors who play Lyle and Erik Menendez in Netflix’s series, as well as the actual brothers, have flooded TikTok since the series’s release. Captions tend to defend the brothers, who were sentenced to life in prison after murdering their abusive parents. You could recreate the image of the brothers dressed in black suits in court or take inspiration from the TV show and draw them on their oversexed shopping spree. Talking about their hotness over their crimes surely sends a shiver down any criminal justice major’s spine.
Theater: Rachel Berry
Theater majors, I have one question for you: If you could have gone to NYADA, would you have? Memorialize the fictional university’s most famous dropout, Rachel Berry, this Halloween. Berry’s dramatic, selfish behavior in “Glee” haunts society’s perception of theater kids everywhere.
You’ll spook the rare collegiate trick-or-treater, leaving all of the Halloween candy for yourself, as no one wants to knock on a theater kid’s door. What if they sing? To achieve this look, find a stencil of Rachel Berry’s headshot and carve away, leaving behind her signature smile and thick hair helmet. And don’t fret about Rachel seeing this story and having her feelings hurt — reading isn’t her jam.
Psychological and Brain Sciences: Zombies
Never neglect the classics, especially if you can provide a fresh spin on them. Psychology and brain science students have a special claim over these hungry undead. Like zombies, these students are obsessed with brains.
You could stencil a zombie onto the orange canvas that has a preference for how they eat brains — maybe preferring an undergraduate’s juicy, pink prefrontal cortex because it’s not finished cooking. You could also mimic the appearances of the undead in Plants vs. Zombies, gracing the gourd with skeletal bodies covered in oversized clothes. After spending hours devouring textbooks and studies about the inner workings of the mind, they might feel like a zombie themselves.
