Lexi White- General Reporter
Being able to talk openly about one’s emotions or opinions can help reduce stress levels, but having a safe environment to have these conversations in is more comforting.
On Monday, Feb. 26, the Wilkinson Resident Attendants, RAs, hosted an event pertaining to these ideas.
Business management major Asia Fairweather, a sophomore, was one of the RAs hosting this open-minded event.
“We are going to be asking questions to get the mind thinking,” Fairweather said. “We will be asking relationship or intimate questions, self-love questions, and general questions to see where people’s heads are at while we converse.”
In addition, the RAs provided chocolate covered strawberries and smoothies to all who attended. They also set up a rainbow loom station, a gimp station, and a beaded bracelet station to keep the residents’ hands busy as others are giving their point of view on each question.
“We did a lot of different community building events last semester, but we wanted to get a little more intimate to have residents really connect with each other,” Fairweather said.
With each question that was asked, students had the choices of extremely disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or extremely agree. They had to stand by the sign of which they side with.
Social work major Lydia Brown, a junior, was another RA helping to host this event.
“I think this will make students feel more comfortable about being on campus because we are going to be having a hot topics discussion,” Brown said. “I think this might be a good way for students to realize that they are not alone, and bring awareness to the problems that college kids are experiencing.”
Students got personal about their perception of each question. Questions pertaining to college life, social media, confidence issues, personal identity and even sexual education did not make the students uncomfortable.
They each embodied their experiences and opinions, and this helped them to build their relationships with one another.
Communications major Jonathan Christiano, a sophomore, was one of the students who participated in this honest event.
“This helped me to connect with my peers because I was able to hear their points of view and opinions on different subjects,” Christiano said. “I got to laugh with them, connect with them and have a productive discussion with them.”
Another student who participated was nursing major Naomi Dimkpa, a freshman.
Dimkpa said, “This just showed that in college you can talk about whatever you want. In high school, we could never talk about the things we did tonight.”
The RAs wanted to create a safe space for students so they could talk freely without feeling judged.
Fairweather said, “I think this benefits students because they are opening up more and talking to different people with different backgrounds.”
Nursing major Briana McCollum, a freshman, was another student who participated in this event.
“This really helped me to connect with my peers because I was able to see how they feel about certain topics, whether it is controversial or not,” McCollum said.
