Dogs. And lots of them. Of course, petting some dogs wasn’t my original intent when I walked across campus to the Get Involved Fair. My roommate and I were both tired of it being just us two when going to get food or having a movie night and we were hoping that the Get Involved Fair would open us up to more social outlets that we would be able to attend that would help us make more friends.
When we got to F Wing, to say we were overwhelmed by the vast assortment of tables and clubs/organizations would be an understatement. They had tables that seemed to stretch both side of the entire hall! My roommate and I had entered the hall in the middle of the commotion so we started our walk in one direction before we would have to turn around to cover the other direction. We walked down the hall slowly, scanning each poster and what each table was promoting. The students did a beautiful job on their table’s visual presentation such as tri-folds, freebies, treats, and informational handouts. As you can imagine, the lovable and overly excited dogs were the real attention grabbers at the tables. Most of the organizations had no connection to necessarily needing dogs at their tables except for the fact that they could rope students in more easily. My roommate and I approached one table with a dog and instantly he licked our hands and a student from the table held out a flyer and said, “Now since you pet him, you have to take one of these.” That was some good advertising if you ask me.
Most students were very friendly and open about sharing information about their organizations with other curious students. I was rather surprised at how well these students grabbed our attention and captivated even the slightest interest we had in their organization. Some tables had only one student, or maybe even two, who were both too consumed in their laptops to notice people were standing by their table trying to get as much information out of the poster as possible. It was kind of sad to watch those interested students walk away because of how awkward they felt that they were not being given further information by the students who seemed to be ignoring them. I do not know why those organization representatives did not even look up to see if students were standing in front of them or why those reps wasted their time to sit around and not do what they were supposed to be doing.
Overall, I was surprised at what a good turn out the Get Involved Fair seemed to be. It was buzzing with activity and interested students throughout the entire fair duration. There were some very diverse and well rounded organizations that seemed to cover any interest that a student may have. I would bet that everyone who attended the Get Involved Fair found at least one club or organization that interested them enough to at least sign up for the emailing list. I personally got some interesting information about clubs and organizations that I did not even know existed and I plan on attending those meetings.