Community is a big part of the college experience. From late night study sessions to attending sporting games, hitting the cafeteria and all the moments in between, it is the people around us that turn school years into lasting memories. At CBU’s Community Life department, staffers make it their priority to encourage the fostering of friendships through creative events.
Starting a new trend, Community Life will be scheduling events that include weekend dates this year. The first event of the semester, Pop N’ Paint, took place on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 16.
Sela Thomas, senior Christian studies and behavioral science major, explained the reasoning behind hosting Pop N’ Paint.
“We wanted to do a creative artistic event to bring friend groups, roommate groups, and especially individuals who may not know anyone, together in a lowkey and chill environment. We figured a lot of people like painting whether they are amazing artists or whether they just do it for fun. We thought it would be a cool opportunity for people to get to know each other better,” Thomas said.
Kate Goodwin, senior elementary education major and Community Life intern, added that it is important for them to start doing events on the weekends.
“We are starting to do more weekend events to get people involved during the weekend. Some people say it gets kind of dead on campus during the night or on the weekends so we just wanted to find ways to get people involved and to bring them together, even when they don’t have class,” Goodwin said.
The Pop N’ Paint event included items that fit under the “pop” category, such as PopRocks, pop music, popcorn, and soda pop, as well as, of course, painting.
Students were able to grab their own painting canvas and tools and make their way to decorated communal tables to get started.
Imani Reardo, junior business administration major and residential adviser, came to the event as part of her job duties.
“As an RA, we have to do Take 2 events to events that other programs on campus do, so this is one that I chose,” Reardo said. “I have two other residents with me. I like that these weekend events are helping people to start choosing to stay on campus more.”
Kylie Williams, senior environmental science major, said her decision to attend the Pop N’ Paint event was not preplanned.
“I came just because it was something happening on a Saturday,” Williams said. “I hope I get serotonin out of this event and also, painting is relaxing and something that I enjoy doing, so that’s nice.”
Throughout the events Community Life will host this semester, such as the Barn Dance on Sept. 28 and Boyband Karaoke Night on Sept. 19, the theme of relationship-building is a common thread.
“I hope students have fun activities to do on campus,” Thomas said. “And I hope anyone who comes as an individual is able to meet one other person or a group of other people and continue to build that relationship, whether it’s in classes or recreational stuff or Comm Life stuff, and that the groups that come together will grow stronger and just have fun.”
