Ohio Northern’s Student Senate held its annual “Winter Welcome Fest” event Jan. 27 in Mac Activities room inside the McIntosh Center. Some of the organizations present at Winter Welcome Fest included Amnesty International ONU, American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, Panhellenic Council, Interfraternity Council, and others. Each of these organizations have a unique purpose and strive to achieve different goals, promoting diversity at Winter Welcome Fest.
Freshman double major in Political Science and Creative Writing Zachary Wiles participates in events like this to “make ourselves more well known among the student body” and “to lead to an increase in membership” in the organization he is a part of.
Wiles says that every student who decides to get involved will find more opportunities, and that “it’s incredibly difficult to run a successful organization if you are lacking members,” so organizations should get involved in more events like this to help them succeed in their visions.
Secretary of Campus Organizations Camryn Waldrop said, “The goal of Winter Welcome Fest was to bring an opportunity for both new students in the Spring Semester and returning students to explore organizations and potentially join them.”
Waldrop believes involvement for students is important for many reasons, including being knowledgeable about how the University functions, meeting new friends and making connections, taking on healthy responsibilities, and helping one discover who they are.
Winter Welcome Fest is a downsized version of Welcome Fest held in King Horn Sports Center during the fall semester. Waldrop stated that although the Winter event is smaller, it still captures the very different perspectives all the same. There are plans to make both of these events bigger and better in the future.
Waldrop said the goals for Winter Welcome Fest next year are to increase organization participation and to get more students coming to the event as well by better advertisement. Doing so will increase the current diversity the event has while encouraging increased participation by the student body in these organizations.