Marina Garza
The weekend of February 22 and the 23rd marked TAMUT’s big hosting debut with Eagle Open House. Prospective students, ranging from the Texarkana area to even the Dallas area, spent their Friday night at TAMUT’s residence hall to receive a small taste of college life. Residents of Bringle Lake Village not only volunteered to host one to two prospective students in their dorm, but they volunteered to be the first college experience for these students as well. Once the residents met up with their prospective student(s) and let them drop their belongings off in the rooms, those students were given dinner and a big welcome to TAMUT. After dinner, everyone went back to Bringle Lake Village to experience “Last Chance to Be a Kid.”
RHA and the RAs of BLV assembled an inflatable obstacle course, volleyball games, fire pit
s, and some other activities like Balloon Darts and Potato Sack Races, a.k.a. the “Last Chance to Be a Kid” event. There was also the popular photo booth, a wax hands stand, and the Eagle Express screened Pitch Perfect for enjoyment as well. Later in the evening, prospective students were provided pizza and a huge scavenger hunt by “The Connection”, and RHA filmed their own “Harlem Shake” video in the courtyard that featured the prospective students and the residents dancing together.
One resident thathosted Friday night, Brittney Baker, described her experience with hosting a prospective student, “I did enjoy myself as well as the student (that she hosted). For hosting, at first, I was nervous but as soon as everything started to go on, I became more into it.”
After an eventful night, the prospective students awoke early Saturday morning to eat a filling breakfast provided by TAMUT’s cafeteria. Once breakfast ended, the students and their parents walked around the UC floors to find booths that included information about organizations, programs, and clubs that are offered at TAMUT. As some students were gathering information, some were partaking in the tours of the whole campus lead by student volunteers. An hour and an half later was lunch, where the day ended with students and even parents being asked to come down to the podium of Eagle Hall to compete for two $100 gift cards to TAMUT’s bookstore. Overall, TAMUTs Eagle Open House was sure to leave a mark on the perspective students and their parents.
Some of the One Stop staff that made Eagle Open House such a successful event was KaDeidre Bell, Liz Friday, Vanessa Akard, Hunter Somerville, Toney Favors, and Roderick McKnight. The staff had interesting things to say about their event as well.
Hunter Somerville explains that some of the work that went behind Eagle Open House “was primarily a lot of planning. Our team had to plan the dates for the event, our target student groups, and how we would be promoting our event with respect to post cards, emails, and fliers.” Kadeidre Bell adds that the staff “worked before and after work and school preparing the information booklets and gifts, setting up booths and displays, creating registration and workshop Powerpoint presentations, etc. It took a lot of patience, team work, and proven efforts to make event this as successful as it was.”
As for the student volunteers that lead the tours around campus and were around to assist the One Stop Staff, Vanessa Akard says “’hard working,’ quite frankly, is an understatement. When given a task, our volunteers promptly and expeditiously completed said task, only to find me afterwards to ask what more they could do.” Liz Friday adds in her compliments to the volunteers, stating that they “were extremely helpful and were a great representation for TAMUT. This event could not have been so successful without the hard work and dedication from the volunteers.”
Students of TAMUT and residents of Bringle Lake Village, be sure to sign up for an event like Eagle Open House the nice time is comes around. Assistance is always appreciated and signing up for an event like this one will be a wonderful experience to remember.