My hall Grey Havens is part of what is known as the First Year Excellence Program, or FYEP for short. Every year, all of the FYEP halls organize a philanthropy, community service project. It serves as both a way to give back to the community, as well as a way for first years to build up their resume. I was personally a little skeptical at first. I thought to myself, “Man I already have so much work, is this worth it?” I figured it would be at least worth checking out, so I decided to go to the first meeting with my room mates. After the first meeting though I was totally on board.
The project is organized and overseen by our wonderful UU counselor Andrea, but the residents are the ones who actually plan everything out and make the project their own. Attendance isn’t mandatory, but we’ve really been trying to get more people to come out. Even if residents choose not to be a part of the planning committee, they can still help with the event itself. As of now, we have around fourteen people who show up regularly, and we’re making good progress! Our goal right now is to hold a community event at the Brookdale Senior Living Facility over by UTC, and we’re still in the process of communicating and getting something officially organized with them. We’re thinking of holding a kind of roaring 20’s themed dance/game night with the residents, and we’ve been trying to think of different ideas for activities.
Right now I’m in charge of putting together a music playlist for the event, and I’m also working with other people to come up with fundraiser ideas. Other people are in charge of communicating with Brookdale, trying to recruit people, and managing the project’s Facebook page. Although it can be a lot of work depending on what you volunteer to do, I see it as one of those things where the more you put into it, the more you get out. So far it’s been really exciting coming up with ideas and seeing our group making progress. I’m really looking forward to executing the actual event and seeing all of our efforts come to fruition. If you’re an incoming freshman reading this and choose the first year excellence program as your desired theme, definitely make an effort to come out to the events. I know it doesn’t seem like it’d be fun to add work on top of all the other responsibilities you already have, but I can say for sure that it’s been totally worth it.
