Joseph Adams
Staff reporter
The Office of Student Life is sponsoring Welcome Week for new and returning students to the college during the first week of classes.
Welcome Week activities can help students acclimate to college life and includes the Cav Kickoff, which is held on Wednesday, the first week of the semester.
The Cav Kickoff is a celebration that takes place Wednesday, August 22nd from 10:00-2:00 p.m. in the COM plaza and is usually the most popular event of Welcome Week, according to Cassie Fulk, manager of student activities and leadership development.
Anne Turney, manager, student life and leadership development, explains the benefits of Cav Kickoff.
“Cav Kickoff is the highest attended Welcome Week event due to the nature of things offered and because there are so many different components there that draw students as well,” Turney said.
According of Fulk, some of the activities of the Cav Kickoff include, free food, swag giveaways, karaoke, booths with information about many of the campus clubs and organizations and even visits from four-year universities.
There are many other Welcome Week activities held daily. Including, mini-golf, plinko giveaways, an ice cream crawl, grocery bingo and on Friday students can hang out with the men’s soccer team and play games, listen to music and eat snacks, according to Fulk.
Turney explains the hangout with the men’s soccer team is the first of many hangouts that will occur every Friday.
“Student life will be doing the Friday hangouts this semester. It is usually just something chill outside, for students to hangout, sometimes its volleyball games, popcorn or movies; stuff like that,” Turney said.
These events are important to incoming and returning students because it shows students their opportunities while attending the college. Students can meet student ambassadors, join clubs and organizations and find out about campus jobs, according to Turney.
“[Welcome Week] is a good way to show new students everything we offer so they can start getting involved right off the bat,” said Turney. “It’s also a good opportunity for clubs and orgs to market themselves as well as upcoming events.”
There is also a new portal (jccc.campuslabs.com/engage) for students to check campus events and other ways to get involved on campus according to Turney.
“It is a brand-new student involvement portal where students can look up events and every student club. The campus departments are being added as well,” Turney said.
For students, like Chris Bishop, Welcome Week is a good opportunity to get free swag and see what clubs, organizations and jobs are available.
Bishop said, “The [Cav Kickoff] is fun to see. It’s a great way to get new students interested in the college and I like the free giveaways, because I’m a greedy college student.”
Check out the rest of the Ledger’s coverage of Cav Kickoff here and here.