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Barbara Vasquez, Production Editor / Web Editor

When the Spring 2025 semester ended last May, many campus organizations paused their activity for the season. However, Manhattan Media Network (MMN) kept their social media alive and active through their Side Quest Summer series. 

This series followed club members on their very own ‘side quests’ throughout the summer, whether that meant trying a new restaurant, exploring an unfamiliar area or anything in between. MMN was motivated to keep new content flowing over the long break in order to not lose the momentum the group had built over the previous year. 

Sam Wofford, senior communication major and secretary for MMN, spoke to The Quadrangle about where the idea came from. 

“Matthew originally had the idea, and he pitched it to me and Aureliano because we were the three that were in the area the most over the summer,” Wofford said. “We just thought it’d be really great to boost connection over the summer. We didn’t want any of our interest from last semester to be lost over the summer, so this seemed like it was a really fun, but also low-key way to keep it up.”

Matthew Zheng and Aureliano Morales, who Wofford mentioned, created a number of their own Side Quest Summer videos. The first installment of the series shows Morales and Zheng attending the Arthur Avenue Street Fair, where they try food from different stalls and share clips of the event. 

“I always wanted to do a video covering the fair because it’s always been a fun time, at least while I was growing up,” Morales said. “So I thought, ‘Let me show off what we have over there. It’s only a 45 minute bus ride – let me show off a little bit more of the Bronx.’”

Zheng, who initially pitched the idea, shared that he first came up with it after noticing he was already doing “fun” activities, and simply needed to actually film his day to make content. 

“I noticed during that first month after university I was meeting up with different groups of people almost every other day, and I was always on these side quests,” Zheng said. “That inspired me to think ‘why not make a video series out of the side quests I’m already doing?’ So I brought it up with the team and they loved the idea so we went with it.”

As the series continued throughout the summer, the videos remained, for the most part, spontaneous and taken during outings that MMN members were already on.

“When I went out and did mine, I wanted to act however I normally act and just hang out with my friends; except this time, document it,” Wofford said. “I didn’t really have the thought that it would be a club video in my mind, because then it wouldn’t be as fun.”

MMN members posted a wide variety of activities for the Side Quest Summer series, ranging from trying out new foods to attending Anime NYC, NY’s largest anime convention. 

These new foods included two more ‘exotic’ dishes that some MMN members tried– breast milk ice cream and cuy, a dish featuring roasted or fried guinea pig. Zheng proposed this idea based on seeing videos of the foods, along with similar dishes, on Instagram.

“I remember when we were in the city he [Zheng] asked ‘bull testicles or cuy?,’” Morales said. “I’d rather eat a whole guinea pig than touch the bull testicle.”

After confirming their decision on the cuy, Zheng and Morales invited Wofford and another MMN member to accompany them in trying it. 

“That was definitely my highlight of the series just because of how creative of an idea it was,” Wofford said. “It was just so spontaneous, and it put me in such a good mood too.”

Most of the locations shared, including La Casa Del Cuy, where members tried the South American dish, are just miles away from campus. Morales said this was a purposeful detail as an attempt to show that MU students aren’t strictly bound to the nearby area. Wofford corroborated this thought.

“I think Manhattan University is in a very lucky spot in New York, because we have our campus and we have our neighborhood, but we also have our train,” Wofford said. “There are no bounds when it comes to being a student here at Manhattan University, and I definitely don’t think all schools could say that.”

Now with the fall semester beginning, Side Quest Summer has come to an end. MMN, though, will continue pushing out content as the year progresses. Established series such as ‘Bussin’ or Disgustin’’ or ‘Manhattan on the Move’ will be continued, alongside new series that are soon to be announced. With the semester still new, members of the group encourage interested parties to join. 

“[Manhattan] Media Network is one of those clubs that really ties other clubs together,” Wofford said. “It truly ties a lot of people on campus together, and it’s just such a great club to be a part of.”

For more updates on MMN as the school year continues, follow their Instagram @manhattan.media.network or attend a general meeting, scheduled for Mondays at 5pm.