Although the semester is winding to a close, there are still multiple events happening on campus. One such event was the Vision Board Poster Party at Johnson Gym, hosted by the Office of Student Activities & Involvement at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7. Each participant was provided with materials—markers, glue and magazines—to create a vision board, a poster that describes its creator’s vision for the 2021 year. Money prizes would be given to the top three most creative posters, judged by a special panel consisting of President Andrea Luxton, Vice President Michael Nixon and Provost Christon Arthur.
Ashley Neu, the director of Student Activities Involvement, was in charge of coming up with the event, alongside Ki’ana Hall (senior, psychology) and Timmy Duado (junior, marketing), the Student Activities Involvement student planners. Due to the COVID-19, planning was not the smoothest process; the total number of participants was limited to 50 people and supplies had to be divided into individual packaging in order to be distributed. Students were also asked to wear masks throughout the duration of the event, as well as spread out in the gymnasium as per social distancing guidelines.
Despite the lower participant turnout, Mr. Duado noted that he liked the dynamic of the smaller group. “I enjoyed the intimate atmosphere. It was also a lot of fun trying to create something, even though I’m not that creative,” he commented after the event. Michael Cuke (senior, theology) also mentioned that he appreciated the fact that he was “doing something constructive on a Saturday night.” He added, “I’m not a ‘planner,’ but planning [my poster] was really fun.” The posters were a clear demonstration of the thought put into them by each of their creators; the overarching themes included, but were not limited to, moving on, being positive, following your dreams and more. Due to the smaller number of participants, the prizes were adjusted so that first place would be awarded a $75 prize, while all others would place second and given $25. All went away happy, and more motivated to focus on their goals for the upcoming year.
Ms. Neu noted that her motivations for the vision board party went beyond simply wanting students to find a creative outlet to destress. “2020 has been a hard year,” she said, elaborating, “[Our hope is that] this event will give students a chance to think ahead to 2021 and how they can make that the best year yet.” Keep an eye out for more activities in the weekly emails, which list the date and times of the events held on campus.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.