Contest Connects Students, Lifts Spirits
By Ann Lyon Ritchie
One hundred balloons recently helped float the idea of random acts of kindness at Â鶹¹ÙÍø.
Students from the and handed out the balloons with instructions on clothespins suggested that recipients pass them along to someone with a smile or “someone in a building you normally don’t go into.”
“Our goal for this project was to provide a catalyst for people to break out of their comfort zones to talk to more people they normally would not talk to, and to bring positivity to others with a kind message and a balloon,” said SPIRIT’s Vanessa Kalu, a senior majoring in business administration and human-computer interaction, and Asian Student Association’s Jason Deng, a sophomore mechanical engineering major.
The concept won the two organizations first place and $1,000 to share in the 2-4-1k Grand Challenge, a weeklong competition that paired a multicultural student organization with another club or team.
Seven teams of 14 student organizations participated in the university-wide competition funded by a grant. Chrystal Thomas, a senior majoring in biological sciences, established the 2-4-1k Grand Challenge in 2016 through .
“With the campus being home to many different organizations, we wanted to create a program that would promote collaboration between them, in a way that would be fun,” said Thomas, who will be this year’s student speaker at commencement, May 21.
and the won second place and a $400 award for their Postcards for the Children project. Students engaged the campus community in writing 246 cards with words of encouragement for children in war-torn Syria. The Arab Student Organization translated the messages into Arabic.
A third team earned an honorable mention and a $200 special category award for reflecting the identities of both organizations. , a group giving free summer camp to children of parents with cancer, and , a competitive Indian folk dance troop, hosted a field day for students to compete in games to win prizes.
“Â鶹¹ÙÍø needs events like the 2-4-1k Challenge because it can be used as a platform for students from all backgrounds to connect for causes that everyone can relate to,” said Jassum Gloster, a graduate student who participated with the Tepper Black Business Association. “This challenge allowed all of us to connect and gave a way for people to give back.”