California Baptist University’s Community Life Office hosted its third annual lounge party Sept. 6 to kick off the new school year.
The lounge party started as an open house event for Community Life’s location in Lancer Plaza and evolved into a traditional event signaling the start of a new year. The event welcomes students back to school to give them information about what has been planned for the year at Community Life.
Kristin Waters, director of Campus Activities in the Community Life Office, said she enjoyed seeing the number of students come out to the event.
“It is a fun way to get everyone out here for the first day of school and kick off the new year,” Waters said. “We do a lot of collaborative brainstorming for this event with the professional staff and figure out what we want to do the same or what we want to do differently. We like to get students’ feedback after (the party) and go forward from there.”
At the event, the different booths helped advertise what events the Community Life Office is offering throughout the year, along with how to sign up and get involved.Carson Belmont, assistant director of Recreation Programs, said it was a great way to reconnect with students he had not seen over the summer.
“The event builds community among CBU and helps students interact with one another,” Belmont said. “The overall event is a hang out and that is something I enjoy about it because students can come and hang out with their friends and learn about all the events.”
The Community Life Office brought in a live DJ this year, as well as free T-shirt printing and food at the lounge party.
Lupita Oseguera, senior business administration major, said her favorite part of the party was the ice cream and getting tickets to TWIRP, also known as “The Woman Is Required to Pay,” an annual event in which the women of campus are given the opportunity to take the men out on pre-planned dates.
“It was great to see all the students who showed up to the event and the atmosphere made me excited for the upcoming year,” Oseguera said. “I enjoyed being able to see CBU students and staff come together for this event.”
