Remember the giant dinosaur blow-up on Mills Lawn? Students can thank the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership (OSIL) for hosting this year’s Involvement Fair, re-named “R-Big Event.” It most certainly gave the students a great end to their first day of the academic year.
Despite the unpredictable Florida weather, hundreds of first-years and upperclassmen joined the festivities held at the Cornell Campus Center where they found hula and fire dancers, a comedian illusionist, a step show from Sigma Gamma Rho, a free dinner, and more excitement. The purpose of the Involvement Fair is to show students exactly what happens at Rollins and how to be a part of that.
The best way to get involved is to find an organization that best reflects the values, beliefs and interests of a student. It is also a great way to meet people and make friendships that will last a lifetime.
In past years, the Involvement Fair has been held in the Alfond Sports Center at the end of orientation week. However, this year OSIL and OMA realized that this structure prevented upperclassmen from learning about the various opportunities available for getting involved at Rollins.
Brent Turner, director of OSIL, said, “Inviting both new and returning students as well as faculty and staff to the event created a very energetic Cornell Campus Center!”
The organizations featured at the fair ranged from cultural to athletic to social justice, and so forth. All of the tables had information about the organization’s purpose, activities and—in many cases—candy!
Mahjabeen Rafiuddin, director of OMA, was pleased with the large amount of interest shown in the Rollins cultural and social justice groups. “Our 17 cultural organizations collected several pages of names of students who are interested in getting involved with the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Students don’t have to be African American/Black in order to join Black Student Union or Latino/a to join the Latin American Student Association.”
Kelsey Beaumont ‘12 attended R-Big event and shared, “as a peer mentor, it was great to see the first-years getting to know the organizations on campus and starting their journey towards global citizenship and responsible leadership.”
Jamie Pizzi ‘14 thoroughly enjoyed the fair. “The organizers did a really great job building interest in the opportunities available at Rollins and ways to get involved. It’s a shame the fair got moved inside because the dining hall quickly became crowded and hard to move around or ask questions. Nevertheless, there are many organizations at Rollins I look forward to taking part in, like the newspaper.”
If anyone missed out, Chase Hall houses the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership, where you can stop by to find out how you can get involved on campus.
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