Student Involvement Fair: (any)
The Student Involvement Fair was a very interesting experience. There were many clubs that were trying to “recruit” you, but there was not enough time to stop at each table. Walking by a table and not stopping to ask questions and learn more about the club made me feel kind of bad because they obviously took a lot of time in planning everything for their individual club. But, a couple of clubs did catch my attention and I made sure to stop by their table. The first one was the University of New England Partners for World Health Student Chapter. This club at first didn’t catch my attention, but the students at the table started to wave me down and of course I couldn’t walk away. So, I ended up going over and listening to what they had to say. What they do is basically collect medical supplies and distribute the supplies to countries in need. The second organization that interested me was the Student Philanthropy Association. I decided to stop by their table because they looked very inviting. The club actually seemed pretty interesting because they help connect current students at UNE to alumni as a resource for us students. I thought this was interesting because my dad is a UNE alumnus. They also give back to the UNE community which is a great addition. Overall, I learned a lot about different clubs and organizations at UNE during the Student Involvement Fair, but these two were the ones that were the most interesting to me.
Storming To Change DEI Kickoff Event:(extracurricular)
This event was held by the Storming To Change club, one of my teammates is one of the people in charge of this club. This event brought all 18 varsity teams together for a couple activities such as speed connecting, where we would go around in our group and have 1 on 1 conversations with each other to build a sense of community. The second activity we did was what they called interactive trivia, where the group we were in for the speed connecting would work as a team to try and get questions answered correctly and move across the football field to win trivia. My group was close, but we fell just short. At first, I wasn’t too excited to be going to an event on a Sunday while NFL games were going on, but I still went in with an open mind. It ended up being a pretty cool experience, the speed connecting was kind of weird because no one really wanted to do it so it brought a sense of awkwardness to it, but it was still good to get to know people from other teams around UNE. The trivia was also fun, the prize was a UNE t-shirt so it would have been nice to win, but we came up just short. Overall, this was a cool experience but not something I would do again.
Homecoming Soccer Game/Alumni Game: (2 different events) (Both extracurricular)
I started out the day by heading over to the forum to catch some of the Men’s Basketball Alumni Game. I have been to a couple of these before because my dad played basketball at UNE, but it was a different experience being a student at UNE and watching the game. My dad didn’t end up actually playing in the game because he felt he was too old to compete with the younger guys playing in the game, and I don’t blame him because a lot of the guys playing were probably 20 years younger than him. But, I still had a great time. After the alumni game I went to volunteer as a ball boy at the Men’s Soccer Game. At first I had no clue what I was getting into, one of the captains on my team said that they needed a couple volunteers for the soccer game so I volunteered, but they never said what I was doing. Me and a couple other of my teammates were waiting around for probably 30 minutes waiting for someone to tell us what we were doing. Finally someone told us that we were being ball boys for the game. This was an interesting experience, it was kind of cold and I honestly did not really have any interest in the actual game. But, because I was right next to UNE’s sideline I could hear everything the Coach was saying and since they were losing he was yelling a lot which made it kind of entertaining. This is probably something that I will not do again, but it was still a cool experience.
Guest Speaker:(Academic)
This was a very informative experience that I went to. The guest speaker was Kena Gilmour, who is a former basketball player at “Hamilton College who identifies as a cisgender queer Black man” (@une_stc on Instagram). My basketball team collectively decided to attend his speech so we could learn more about the situation of people who differ from the status quo of a student athlete, especially on the male side of sports. It was probably about 45 minutes long, so it wasn’t too long but I was still able to learn a lot. Overall I am very happy I attended this because I am now more knowledgeable about what others could be going through.
Archive Material: (Academic)
Look @ Bonus journal on Oct. 8th, 2022
Trunk or Treat: (extracurricular)
This event was held right outside of the forum in the parking lot. I also attended this with my team. We had to decorate two of our cars to look somewhat halloween themed, and we were probably the worst team at this. We then had a bunch of candy in our trunks and little kids from who knows where would walk around and go trick or treating. This went on for around 2 and half hours, which was a little long because it was very cold so it wasn’t the best time. However, seeing the smiles on the kids faces after we gave them candy and complimented their costume was a very nice feeling. Overall, even though it was very cold, I still enjoyed it.
Girls Basketball game: (any)
I decided to go to the women’s basketball game against Endicott here at UNE before our game. I technically am not required to go to any of the women’s games at home, so this is why I decided to count it as a beyond class activity. I wanted to go to one of their games b/c they are doing really well so far into the season and I have watched glimpses of their games before. From the glimpses it looked like they played great team basketball and were really well coached, so I wanted to watch a full half before I had to get ready for my game. This game was no different from the rest, they played great and all seemed on the same page. I love watching well played basketball no matter the level, for me it is just very satisfying when the players on the team care more about the team than they do individual success. The atmosphere was also amazing, it is really nice to see so many people show up and support women’s sports because this is not something that is normalized enough in society today. I will definitely have to go see another game at some point in the season before my games.
Shopping for the Giving Tree: (any)
I am very grateful that the opportunity to do something like this was presented to me. I volunteered alongside 7 of my other teammates to head over to Walmart and buy some toys for kids that may be a little less fortunate than us. Every year the basketball team sets aside money that was supposed to be for a meal while we travel and we spend it on some toys. This year we had a total of 357 dollars to spend, so this was more than enough. Even though I know that there are kids out there that don’t have the same opportunities that I do and their Christmas might be as filled with presents as mine used to be, I am not always conscious about it. However, this experience reminded me of kids in that situation and how even the smallest things can go a long way in making someone’s day. This is definitely something I will be participating in every year from here on out as I am at UNE.
Note: I know I don’t have proof of me being at some of these events, so even though I did attend all of them I still completely understand not giving me full credit for some of these, it’s my fault.
