Essence Boyd – Copy Editor
Given cloth, paint, markers and a variety of snacks to keep them motivated, students made tapestries to express themselves in a trendy way to decorate their dorm.
In the Farnham Programming Space, residence life presented students with the chance to relieve their stress in a creative and colorful way on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event provided some with the opportunity to show off their talents and gave others the opportunity to make new friends.
Residence life graduate intern and Wilkinson Hall duty supervisor, Alyssa Santiago was the person behind Saturday’s Weekend Warrior event. One of Santiago’s, “key jobs,” while working for the Office of Residence Life is to host weekly events at that time and in that space.
“This weekend I decided to do DIY tapestries because it’s something that they can take with them,” said Santiago. “It’s something that also takes a while to make and requires students to put that creativity thought into it.”
Alongside Santiago was senior and collaborative elementary education major Fidana Ha.
“It’s not one of those events were you can just grab and go,” said Ha, “it’s one that brings a lot of people together to be creative and it was just a very fun program to keep residents on campus for the weekend.”
Senior and psychology major Eduard Garcia was one of many volunteers working the event.
“It’s one of the first [events] that excels out there in promoting unity within the campus,” said Garcia. “[It] shows that we are stepping towards the new ideology of having more people stay on campus, interact with each other and having more people partake in the events that Southern has to offer rather than just going home on the weekend.”
The goal of Weekend Warriors is to encourage students to stay on campus, meet new friends and get involved during the weekend.
Freshman and nursing major, Arianna Ruiz was one of many students who decided to explore their creativity.
“It was cool to be out and be creative today,” said Ruiz. “It allowed me to explore campus a little more and get to know more people.”
Sophomore and social work major, Isenia Ramos, said she normally goes home and works on the weekends.
“It was something that really sparked my interest and it kinda encouraged me to stay here,” she said.
Some students came along with friends and that they were glad they came.
Freshman and social work major Olivia Mitchell came with her friends, one of whom had been talking about the event. She said that they have been trying to go to more events.
“We don’t really hang out much outside of classes,” said Mitchell, “so it was fun to get to see each other and hang out.”
Santiago said they residence life tries to have a variety of events.
“Sometimes we do tie dye t-shirts, ice cream socials, we’ve done pet therapy,” Santiago said, “we really like to get people down here to meet new people in the community.”
Photo Credit: Essence Boyd
