As I mentioned in my introduction post, I was re-elected as President of the 2016 Class Council and I’m absolutely loving it. We've had a change in line-up, but our team has been performing excellently and I’m excited to keep our streak up (Shoutouts to: Ulrik Söderström, Douglas Reyes, Kelsey Tuttle, Shakti Rambarran, Zach Jenkins, Elisabeth Watson, and Chrissy Rutherford!).
This semester, we've already had five events and we've only been at school for six weeks. For a few of them we were co-sponsors (we helped with the event but we didn't take the lead), but that’s still absolutely fantastic and our turn-outs have exceeded our expectations at every single event.
Our first event was a co-sponsored event with the Sophomore Committee, which is a committee that helps plan events that are specific to sophomores every year. It was called “How To Be A Successful Sophomore” and was an ice cream social meet and greet. This event took place during the first week of classes and was a great way to meet up with other sophomores that you hadn’t seen, since you had returned from summer break. At this event, we handed out stainless steel Class of 2016 water bottles and delicious "cookiewich" ice cream sandwiches! I had a ton of fun catching up with various friends, and hundreds of sophomores showed up for the free water bottles, information, and solidarity.
Our second event was co-sponsored with the 2014 and 2015 Class Councils. The 2015 Class Council took the lead on this event that they called “Wet ‘N' Wild.” We filled up water balloons, set-up a slip ‘n' slide, had water guns, and had music on the Wilson quad, on a beautiful 75 degree day! We had a ton of fun enjoying some atypical Rochester weather while reliving everyone’s favorite summer pastimes. Fun times playing chicken on the slip 'n' slide:
Our third event was co-sponsored with the Sophomore Committee and Wilson Commons Campus Connections, to supply buses to CITY Newspaper’s South Wedg-ucation event. This was an event that allowed University of Rochester students to venture off-campus and into one of the most lively neighborhoods in the Rochester community. CITY Newspaper gave the first 200 local area students awesome South Wedg-ucation T-shirts and other free swag (I got one!). Over 300 UR students ventured to the South Wedge neighborhood to enjoy sweet shopping deals and delicious cuisine. I ended up eating poutine from the Le Petite Poutine food truck and delicious chocolate from Hedonist Artisan Chocolates.
Our fourth event was our own independent event. We set up buses to go to Green Acre farms for some apple picking! Over 200 people attended this fun fall event. I went and ten of my residents ended up being there. We picked delicious apples and bought fresh apple cider! Here's a photo of my residents and me:
For our most recent event, we co-sponsored with the 2015 Class Council to provide buses and discount tickets for Darien Lake’s: Dark Waters event (Formerly Fright Fest). 132 University of Rochester students took an hour-long bus ride to Darien Lake (sorry, Will and Hannah for misleading you!), which is a large amusement park with roller coasters. During the fall, the park becomes over-run by ghosts and other creepy stereotypical Halloween figures. I was unable to attend this event because I was on RA duty, but I heard that it was a phenomenal time and there were no lines! You can tell they had a fun time at the event because of their smiles!:
I hope that we can continue to keep our momentum and provide well-received programming for our peers. We currently have a few ideas for programming, later in the year, and I think that our experience in executing events will allow our success to continue.