By Jenna Shelton
jshelton@lc.edu
As many of you may already know, I am the current Student Activities President at Lewis and Clark Community College (L&C). I was pretty bummed to find out that all of the fun activities we had worked so hard for were going to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. We had been looking forward to a space-themed Spring Fest, a swimming party and a Roaring ’20s party, along with many other fun and free events.
Since everything was canceled and class was turned into online formats, I had a brainstorming session with a few students and advisors, and we decided that we needed to continue to reach out in order to socialize and have some fun with students online as well. With social media, Blackboard, and resources like Zoom, Netflix Party, and HouseParty, there is still the opportunity to connect, play some games and give out some gift cards or prizes.
The L&C Student Activities FaceBook page and the Student Government Association and Activities Organization on Blackboard are being updated with information almost daily about the current schedule for virtual student events. Currently, there is a weekly Zoom Chat event scheduled for every Monday at 2 p.m., where students can visit and talk about varied subjects that interest them. There will be a randomly selected winner from each Zoom Chat event from the April 20 and April 27 participants. Each winner will receive a gift card that will be mailed to them as a participation prize.
There will be a selection of activities ranging from games like bingo and Jeopardy played on Zoom to a weekly “Learn That Thing…” on Facebook Live. We will be having a pet contest where students can send pictures of their pets to the L&C Student Activities FaceBook page, where they will be judged in various categories, such as cutest and ugliest. Again, winning student pet owners will receive a gift card via mail.
If you are like me and are completely addicted to TikTok, then you will be excited to find out L&C will be hosting a TikTok Challenge. Wearing L&C merchandise or clothes, make the best TikTok you can while tagging the L&C Student Activities page using #TrailblazersTogether. Singing, dancing, lip syncing or whatever else you want is allowed, just make sure its school appropriate. The top three winners will receive $50 gas or grocery gift cards. This is hopefully a great way to connect with the students using some of the more popular social media apps.
As excited as I am for the TikTok, I think I am looking forward to Scary Stories Night, where students can log on to hear faculty and staff tell their favorite scary stories or maybe the Friday night Netflix Party movie nights. Students can log onto Netflix through a Google Chrome extension called Netflix Party, where they can watch a movie or program at the same time and can even chat during it. We’ll host a theme with every movie night and will post ideas and recipes for snacks that may enhance your viewing pleasure.
It is important to us to maintain our relationships with the students and make sure they are doing as well as can be while we struggle to live in a world that has been completely changed. For a complete list of scheduled events and more information on how to get connected, please check the L&C Student Activities Facebook page. For questions or concerns contact Jared Hennings or Jenna Shelton.
