Richland welcomed campus students back after spring break with free food, games, attractions and giveaways at Spring Fest. The event, organized by the Office of Student Life and Engagement, took place on March 26. Jonathan White, coordinator of student engagement at Richland, saw the planning for this event carry out over half a year ago. “This particular one, since it’s annually planned, we get together at least six to eight months before this event starts. And 12 months before we have some inkling of how it’s going to play out,” he said.
Student Adan Garcia, a mission specialist for SPACE, helped oversee the planning for this event. “Jonathan, what he’ll do is he’ll create a map just of everything we want to have there at the time, and we’ll follow that map through sections,” he said.
Spring Fest is only one of a series of festivals held on campus, White said. He sees these recurring events as ways for students to meet when they might not get the chance to regularly. “It’s a way to engage, have a sense of belonging and community with their fellow students. A lot of people make new friends at these types of events, people they never really run into on a regular basis,” he said.
Emeka Okonkwo, a student at Richland, said Spring Fest was a great way to have fun after spring break. “It was a lot of fun. It was very interactive. We got to try a lot of different types of attractions and food. The 7-11 hut was pretty cool. It was a nice twist. The bull and the tug-of-war was fun. So were the caricatures. It was a lot, and it was really nice,” he said.
However, these events aren’t just at Richland. They take place across all campuses with all sorts of differences. “Each campus has similar festivities. Some campuses, you may have a mechanical bull. Some campuses, you have a mechanical unicorn. It just depends on the campus and what people, what that student body likes,” White said.
Garcia also volunteered the day of the event. He said, “I love doing events like these, hearing people have fun, and especially hearing feedback that we can base our themes and stuff like that on for next year. One of the things they were talking about was they loved was how there was a mechanical bull. That’s something we can look into, like, having for next year.”
