By: Daniela Mercades, Contributing Writer
Saint Leo University is a great community that offers many holiday-themed events to keep students motivated and to make their college experience feel more like home. Some of the best events are hosted during the last months of the fall semester because most of the holidays are celebrated during these dates. Fortunately, there are many great events on campus, so students can safely have fun without having to go out or spend money.
Since Halloween is one of the most iconic holidays in the United States, there were several Halloween-themed events held on campus. “Movie Night” was the perfect event for students who like to watch movies outdoors. The event was held on the Kirk Lawn and the horror thriller movie “IT” was played. There were snacks for everyone and mats were given to students so they could lay down on the grass.
There were also great opportunities to win prizes playing bingo. “Spooky Bingo’’ was also held outside on the Kirk Lawn, where students sat on chairs to maintain social distancing.
In the Spooky Bingo, students stand up when they are close to winning.
‘‘Paint with Juju’’ was another amazing event for students to relieve stress and show their creativity by painting Jack-O-Lanterns.
Christmas, one of the most important holidays worldwide, comes with a lot of beautiful events on campus. One memorial celebration that usually happens in December is the University Tree-Lighting Ceremony.
Dawn McElveen, one of the staff members that make these events happen.
According to Dawn McElveen, Director of Student and Family Engagement, this year, it will be held on Nov. 18 at 6:30 P.M. The Tree Lighting Ceremony usually happens one week after finals exams. However, due to the fact that many students will be leaving during Thanksgiving and not coming back, it will be before Thanksgiving break this semester.
During this event, people get together, wrap the tree in lights, and put a star on the top. People will say a prayer and a small group sings Christmas carols. After that, the countdown begins and all the lights eventually come on.
Usually, there are hot chocolate, cookies, and snacks for everyone at the Tree-Lighting Ceremony. This year, so far, there will only be wrapped cookies for attendees.
The Campus Activities Board is also planning to arrange games prior to the ceremony in Kirk Lawn, so that people can play yard games together. Right after the event, a Christmas movie will be played on the lawn.
Another nice Christmas event is “A Saint Leo Christmas,” a caroling concert performance by Saint Leo students. According to Dr. Cynthia Selph, Assistant Professor of Music and Music Ministry, this concert will be in the form of a video this year.
University Tree Lighting Ceremony.
The College of Arts and Sciences plans to release the video during the first week of December when students return to class remotely after Thanksgiving break.
For the performance video, each singing student was recorded on an individual track using Logic, an audio production software. For the video, each singer will be recorded individually in front of a green screen.
Those individual recordings will then be compiled together, swapping the green screen for selected Christmas backgrounds and interspersing other imagery from campus, decorated for Christmas, and artwork. The final result will be a Christmas Concert video that features all of the student ensembles performing beautiful Christmas music with engaging visual content, Selph explained.
Dr. Cynthia Selph, assistant professor of music.
Students are excited to go to these on-campus events because is a great way to have fun, meet new people, get out of their routine, and even win prizes. Widna Simon, a sophomore student majoring in business management, says she keeps an eye on every event on campus because she feels that attending to them helps clear her mind and she loves to interact with new people.
Saint Leo’s events team is making sure that guidelines are being followed, and it is doing a good job so far. There are a lot of differences when hosting events this semester, compared to past ones, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Firstly, university members must follow “Protect the Pride” guidelines when organizing events.
Uncertainty has played an important role in planning events, McElveen said. Saint Leo staff have changed plans multiple times since summer because of COVID-19 fluctuations. Now, events are posted just a few days before they are held because the staff cannot be sure that the event will go exactly as planned.
Another difference this semester is that students must register before going to the event so that the people organizing the event can keep track of the number of students that will attend the activity, for social distancing purposes.
The movie IT was played on the Kirk Lawn.
In the past, Saint Leo hosted awesome events off-campus, which students loved to attend. Despite the hard work of Saint Leo’s staff, all activities off-campus were canceled to protect their students from the COVID-19.
Even though this semester they were canceled, students remember past events happily. According to Kechna Calixte, a sophomore majoring in biomedical health services, some of the most popular events were Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Walt Disney World, and the Tree-Lighting Ceremony in Tampa.
The Tree-Lighting Ceremony will still be hosted on Dec. 4 at 6 P.M. in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. Crowds help Mayor Jane Castor countdown to the tree lighting and afterward enjoy a movie in the park. Admission to the ceremony and movie are free.
Students can find tickets for these events on the Saint Leo Tickets Website (https://saintleotickets.universitytickets.com). The best part is that they are usually very cheap compared to the actual price: that is why they sell out really fast.
Additionally, all on-campus events can be found in Saint Leo’s email Newsletter, on the Saint Leo’s community website at http://community.saintleo.edu/, or via the CAB Instagram account, @saintleocab.
There are always updates of oncoming activities to keep students entertained so they can enjoy to the fullest their college experience. For those students who will stay on campus during Christmas break, there will be a lot of fun events.
Many of these events will be virtual. Depending on the number of students staying on campus, staff will also try to do in-person events because they know that there are many students who cannot return home, especially international students.
