By Emma Russell
Student Life Editor
Welcome Week is an event hosted every year by the Student Events Board during the first week of classes to greet both new and returning students.
According to Director of Series Events and junior Noah Vargas, “The point of Welcome Week, in my opinion, is to make this entire campus feel united. I feel like everyone is super stressed, everyone is coming back… literally just interacting with people has been a lot for all of us.”
Events planned for the week included bubble soccer located on the campus green at 9 p.m., (which was set to take place on Sept. 1 but was rescheduled for Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. due to the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings according to an email from SEB); an all-day scavenger hunt on Sept. 2; and free Chick-fil-A in Hodson from 12-2 p.m. on Sept. 3.
According to Vargas, each event was planned with a purpose in mind.
“Bubble soccer is to make new friends and to have an athletic event. Scavenger hunt is to get to know the school better and to feel like this is your home. And Chick-fil-A, I’m gonna be honest, the purpose for that is to bring some joy to the students,” he said.
Different SEB members took charge and were responsible for the events. Director of Annual Events and senior Iyonna Young was in charge of the scavenger hunt event, Director of Special Events and junior Hernan Torres was in charge of the Chick-fil-A event, and Vargas was in charge of the bubble soccer event.
“The whole point of [these events] is to just make students feel comfortable and have a place to go to because I know it can be scary,” Vargas said. “We want [these events] to bring people together, to make new friends.”
According to students like sophomore Julia Flaherty, these events were successful in doing so. Flaherty said she came out to the bubble soccer event with the hopes of meeting new people.
“I was here last spring semester, and there wasn’t a lot to do so I never really got to meet a lot of the other students, so I just thought it would be fun to come out [to bubble soccer] to hang out with some of the other students,” she said.
Flaherty even said that she “became a turtle,” while playing when she was knocked on her back and was unable to get up while stuck in the bubble, but luckily some of the students she had met before were able to come to her aid.
Students were looking forward to Friday, Sept. 3 when they knew they could get their hands on free Chick-fil-A sandwiches or chicken nuggets.
Senior Alison Buckwalter even jokingly said she was going to leave her class, which ended at 12:20 p.m. on Friday, early so she could grab a chicken sandwich before SEB ran out.
Vargas said the purpose of Welcome Week was to make the campus feel more united, and according to the student body, SEB has succeeded.
Photo by Izze Rios