On the last day of Welcome Week, the Division for Student Affairs partnered with student athletes for a community service event called Team Up! Students who registered visited various athletic facilities on campus along with the athletes to clean and maintain the facilities. Riana Braselman/The Lion’s Roar
To start the Fall 2017 semester, the university hosted a string of events known as Welcome Week, which included a community service event called Team Up! on the last day.
“It’s put on by the Welcome Week committee, which is done through the Division for Student Affairs,” said Tyron’E Hawkins a graduate kinesiology major and DSA leadership ambassador. “Angela James is like the head honcho in charge. She is the interim director of the Office of Student Engagement right now.”
Welcome Week lasted from Sunday, Aug. 13 through Friday, Aug. 18. Team Up! was on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
For this community service event, students registered to help athletes clean up and perform maintenance on athletic facilities.
“We are, I guess, making it a mini Big Event,” said Hawkins. “So, we asked athletics if they had anything they needed us to do, and we partnered with the athletes and some of the students coming in. We just kind of went out to all of our athletic areas.”
Hawkins led the group that went to the Naquin Strength and Conditioning Center where students cleaned the walls of the weight room.
Welcome Week was organized to help incoming freshmen integrate into college life at the university by displaying the kind of campus events the university hosts.
“It’s a part of Welcome Week, and that was an initiative to let freshmen know how much we do on campus,” said Hawkins. “Things that there are to offer them on campus and everything, but one thing that we really do stress at Southeastern is community service.”
Since 2011, once a year the university holds a community service event known as The Big Event where students help out the Hammond and Ponchatoula area.
“It is important to your organizations, resume, future endeavors,” said Hawkins. “We are real world ready. So, we wanted them to see that we do community service all the time. So, it’s our, like I said, mini Big Event that is held in the fall. Just something for them to get their feet wet, campus beautification.”
Members of the baseball, golf, tennis, track, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, soccer and volleyball teams participated in cleaning the Naquin Strength and Conditioning Center, University Center, North Oak Park and the Track and Field Complex.
DSA decided to incorporate athletics to help athletes socialize with students outside of their respective sports as well to clean their facilities.
“So many of our athletes are here all the time,” said Hawkins. “They’re either studying, in class, in the weight room, training, in practice. So, they get to get out and mingle with the other sports. Some of the other students, they may not always get to meet and help out around campus.”
Hawkins feels that not only is community service important, but it is also beneficial.
“It’s definitely important,” said Hawkins. “You definitely want to get at least Southeastern’s name out there in the community, but it warms your heart just to know that something you are doing, like volunteering your time I know that you could be doing something else, but you’re serving your community.”
Hawkins believes participating in community service events such as Team Up! benefits everyone involved.
“It feels good,” said Hawkins. “It makes the community feel good. It lets them know that we care. The students care. It gives the students a chance to be out there.”
For more information on future DSA events, visit the Office of Student Engagement.
Riana Braselman/The Lion’s Roar
