Several events for Academy students became yearly traditions. Among these were prom, a collaborative poetry and music performance called "Coffee House", and "The Decathlon". The last of these was a very significant event for many current and former Academy students, in which two teams drawn up from both current students and alumni competed against each other in many different events, which included sports, board games, a scavenger hunt, and an engineering contest, known as the "Challenge." The Decathlon would tend to inspire a great deal of camaraderie among the residents of a floor, while creating drama and competition between the floors as a whole. The Decathlon always took place on the weekend immediately preceding Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January and served as a time of reunion for former students and housing staff, who often came and stayed in Gunn Hall for the weekend and participated alongside current students in the competitions.