If you offer free food, they will come.
That’s the mantra to follow when planning a Week of Welcome event, and it’s certainly part of what made the African American Student Union’s Chocolate Games such as success.
You are welcomed with a variety of Snickers, Twix and Milky Way chocolate bars, all calling for you to break your healthy eating streak. You tear open five too many fun-size candy bars and yield to the immediate gratification of premeditated weight gain.
As you gorge yourself, you begin conversing with fellow attendees. You speak of a rougher-than-usual syllabus week, and how four days into the semester you’ve already had to curb your spending. New acquaintances remark on the high interest in the night’s event, all the while your mind wanders, as you hope to find a chocolate river to submerge yourself in before the night concludes.
Drifting around the room, still devouring Snickers bars, you make your way to the gaming tournaments, pitting fierce competitors at odds in a battle for pride, glory, and the chance to not get booted off the gaming couch.
The chocolate and gaming isn’t what makes this event stand out from the rest; rather, it’s the atmosphere and friendly competition that ring throughout the Student Union Game Room.
DeAndre Pearson is a transfer student new to UNF. He said his reason for seeking out the the Chocolate Games involved how he, “recently got a post from the African American Union that peaked my interest in attending.” He remarked that the event was truly welcoming.
Reginald Durant, the President of the African American Student Union, smiles from afar, as students continue to alter their FIFA 16 and NBA 2K16 tournament brackets. He is pleased with the attendance at the event, mentioning that turnout last year was low.
“It’s important to be a part of Week of Welcome,” he said, “to have a minority organization that is welcoming to students.”
As you depart, you sneak one more Twix bar into your pocket, leaving you with a full stomach, a full smile and a desire to listen to “Chocolate Rain” one more time.
Week of Welcome concludes Saturday with the Welcome to the Nest Festival featuring country star Rodney Atkins. UNF student Samuel Herb opens at 5:00 p.m.
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