The Student Activities Board (SAB) on the Monmouth University campus is always ready to plan new events to make every year better than the previous. One of SAB’s main focuses as an organization is Welcome Week during the first week of school to get all freshman acclimated to the campus and ensure there is always something for the students to participate in.
According to Megan McGowan, the Associate Director of Student Activities and Student Center Operations, the point of Welcome Week is “to help students transition to campus, especially for first years, it gives them the chance to kind of see a sampling of things that they can look forward to on campus throughout the year and also helps transition issues that students may come across.”
Welcome Week began on Sept. 8 with a screening of the movie “Inside Out” on the Residential Quad. Screening a movie on the quad encourages students to come out of their dorms and relax with fellow hawks while watching a movie all together.
The next event that was held for Welcome week was on Sept. 10, where Bryce Vine held a concert in Anacon Hall. Bryce Vine has a different kind of style, which is a combination of rap and indie. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed the songs he sang, especially his hit songs “Sour Patch Kids,” “Take Me Home,” and “Guilty Pleasure.”
Sept. 11 was all hands on deck for the Student Activities Executive Board, being that there were two events the club was required to attend. The first was the Involvement Fair, where all clubs and organizations on Monmouth’s campus join together on the Library Lawn to show who and what they’re all about. Immediately following this was “Cirque Du MU” which turned the quad into a circus with candy, games, live animals, and more!
“The Student Activities Board has once again showed Monmouth students how to have a great time and make fun memories from the moment we stepped on this campus,” said Melissa Naranjo, a sophomore nursing major.
On Sept. 12, SAB held its first comedy event of the year, which attracted a large audience. The two comedians that came were Zoltan Kaszas and Geoff Keith, both professional comedians. Kaszas is from San Diego and was the winner of The Seattle International Comedy Competition. Keith has been featured on MTV’s “Disaster Date”, Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham”, CBS’s “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and E!’s “Chelsea Lately”. Both men shared personal stories and events that have occurred in their life while poking fun at their occurrences. Both comedians used their acts to interact with the audience.
President of the Student Activities Board and junior communication major, Alicia Torello commented, “Welcome Week is the most rewarding week of the year for me because not only do I get to work on events that welcome the first year students to the campus I love so dearly, but I also have the pleasure of seeing our new chairs step up and become their position.”
SAB will continue to host numerous events through out the semester for both residential as well as commuter students to attend. All events are posted on the student activities calendar, and are noted whether or not they qualify for this year’s S.H.A.D.O.W. program.
“I would definitely say Welcome Week was a huge success. So many students went out to various campus events and were eager to become involved at the Involvement Fair. We always encourage students to participate and see what SAB has to offer not only for members, but for non-members as well,” said Thomas Egan, a senior business administration student. Egan is the Vice President of Major & Special Events of SAB.