Making memories at campus events

By Bryce Johnson and Marlee Card •

Events like Sharkapalooza, Fins Festival, Homecoming and CommunityFest can be a way for students to learn more about organizations, meet new friends and participate in activities.

Gerard Wheeler, assistant dean of Student Engagement, hopes that the events enhance student engagement on campus.

“Our goal is to be a full student-run office, and we’re just here to support you and eliminate barriers. So a lot of the events, our student groups, we encourage them to take the lead, so they’re in the forefront of planning the event to get that experience,” Wheeler said.

These events are hosted by the Office of Campus Life; The Inter-Organizational Council; The Undergraduate Student Government Association; and other student groups.

Waves of Welcome hosts several events at the start of the fall semester, lasting two weeks. During Waves of Welcome, Sharkapalooza takes place with almost 3,000 people attending each year.

Tamara Lumsden, assistant director of Club and Organization Engagement, said Sharkapalooza caters to first-year students, with more than 160 organizations participating to recruit new members. The event includes local food vendors, fraternity and sorority life organizations, and performances by student groups.

“We also really curate an experience while the students are there. We have novelties and attractions, whether it’s laser tag or inflatables or a photo booth, whatever the case may be,” Lumsden said. “We do a lot of drawings that happen periodically throughout the night, whether we’re giving out gift cards or gift baskets. We’ve even given out flat-screen TVs, iPads, AirPods, Beats [headphones].”

Sharkapalooza, which was the first event Wheeler attended on campus, also features the student organization fair, where students can find clubs and organizations that make NSU their home-away-from-home.

“It was the most packed thing I’ve ever seen in my life, because it was in the arena at the time, so there were so many people,” Wheeler said. “For the most part, I loved it because I got to see how many clubs and orgs we had, how many students were engaged.”

Wheeler’s favorite event is Homecoming, which typically last for a week in November. The Homecoming events include the tailgate, parade and Greek Stroll Off. On Saturday, either a yacht party or concert is held.

“I want to see Homecoming huge to the point where alumni are 100% coming to Homecoming. So for my undergrad, I still go to Homecoming, like to this day, years later,” Wheeler said.

CommunityFest, another event hosted by Campus Life, is tentatively scheduled for February 2025. Around 7,000 people attend CommunityFest annually. It offers free food, games, a petting zoo and the chance to win prizes.

“It’s really a community-family vibe that we put out there so that we can welcome our internal and our external community to come in and see what NSU has to offer,” Christina Rajkumar-Castillo, director of student engagement for the Office of Campus Life and Student Engagement, said.

Other events include the Affinity Graduations, which hosts several smaller graduations for students of marginalized groups, such as the Black or LGBTQ+ communities; WaterWorks, an event that takes place at the end of Waves of Welcome with water slides and food trucks; the annual Student Life Achievement Awards (STUEYs), an event that recognizes students, staff and faculty members; and Block Painting, where clubs and organizations paint a block outside of the Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center.

Lumsden’s favorite events are Block Painting and All Fins In – The Ultimate Service Project, where several students participate in an annual day of service. “Even though it has a functional purpose, like we want them to be more civic-minded and give back to the local community, it does seem like they genuinely want to do service,” Lumsden said.

For Rajkumar-Castillo, it’s important for students to be at the forefront of the events. “Our ultimate goal with any event that we put on is, we want it to be something our student population wants to be a part of, be proud of,” Rajkumar Castillo said. “That’s the whole intention of what our office does, is programming that our students want, especially programming that they want to lead themselves.”