Frosh Mosh 2011
Last weekend was FGCU's inaugural Frosh Mosh retreat. I spent time spring semester with a 8 Multicultural Ambassadors planning this retreat for freshman to make the most of their college experience at FGCU. I was able to take part in the planning of the schedule, creation of presentations, low ropes activities, selection of student participants, and finally the implementation over the weekend.
Mission:
The mission of the Office of Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is to create an environment at Florida Gulf Coast University that embraces individual differences, sustains inclusion, and cultivates a campus atmosphere that is free from biases. In the spirit of inclusive educational excellence, MSS promotes a supportive and friendly environment that is welcoming and attractive to all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, gender/gender identity, religious conviction, sexual orientation, or disability status.
The goals of Frosh Mosh were to create an outreach program designed to welcome and aid transition and adjustment of incoming students, to provide a supportive opportunity that improves retention, achievement, and graduation of multicultural students, and to provide an opportunity for incoming students to become involved and engaged student leaders at FGCU.
We started the weekend off checking the students into the dorms of Biscayne Hall. We got to know the students by sitting in our "Mosh Pit" groups, mine was M.P. 4, or THE BIG 6! And we played Name Aerobics to remember each others names. Our first presentation was Diversity 101 and then we had an ice cream social. After the ice cream social we broke out into Mosh Pit groups and discussed what we learned today and talked about the students feelings coming into college and being away from home. Day two was a little more physical and it was started off with a low ropes course. We facilitated low ropes activities including Helium Ring, Magic Carpet, Mouse Trap Maze, Human Golf, and Hot Stuff (which turned out to be a favorite). The students stayed in M.P. groups and had 30 minutes at each station, including some time to reflect on learning. After lunch the students took their True Color tests to see which personality color they fit under. I was one of the few Blues at the retreat. The True Color test is designed to help people with interacting with others who have different personality types and it seemed to have been pretty accurate this weekend. After True Color, we had our first Multicultural Ambassador presentation, then dinner. After dinner we planned our skits that were drawn from a deck of index cards, my group had the song "F- You" sung to country. Planning our skit had to be one of the highlights of the weekend, even thought the skit itself was horribly embarrassing! After the skits each student shared a talent with the whole group. I built up the courage to sing the star spangled banner while one of my M.P. group member signed it (American Sign Language). She said she would only sign it if someone sang it, and I definitely wouldn't have sang it if someone wasn't up there with me. Some other people showed off their karate skills, head stand yoga pose, other languages, break dancing, etc. Then it was reflection time in groups. Every night before bed there was a group of students playing mafia, and it got prettttttty intense! The last day the students were required to dress formally. The day revolved around Multicultural Ambassador presentations, a final group reflection, and then the closing banquet. The students' parents were invited to come to the banquet and it was a really great experience. Three students spoke on stage about their weekend. I was really proud of my group member that spoke! I could tell that the students in my group are going far in college and I cannot wait to see where they end up getting involved at FGCU. The Mosh Pit leaders made paper plate awards for their group members. My group members got the awards of Social Butterfly, Mr. Nickname, All American Girl, Most likely to smuggle weapons into the U.S. (She was from Brazil and her hands are registered weapons from martial arts), Most likely to smuggle a Dotson into the dorms, and Miss FGCU. Most of the students checked out with their parents after the banquet, but some stayed because they had freshman orientation the next day. I had a really great group of students and I am extremely happy that they all got along so well and that they want to stay friends next semester. I hope we can all stay in touch. I had so much fun with the group this weekend that even though I had work at 8am the next day, I stayed another night in the dorms and played games with the freshman all night!
Mission:
The mission of the Office of Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is to create an environment at Florida Gulf Coast University that embraces individual differences, sustains inclusion, and cultivates a campus atmosphere that is free from biases. In the spirit of inclusive educational excellence, MSS promotes a supportive and friendly environment that is welcoming and attractive to all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, gender/gender identity, religious conviction, sexual orientation, or disability status.
The goals of Frosh Mosh were to create an outreach program designed to welcome and aid transition and adjustment of incoming students, to provide a supportive opportunity that improves retention, achievement, and graduation of multicultural students, and to provide an opportunity for incoming students to become involved and engaged student leaders at FGCU.
We started the weekend off checking the students into the dorms of Biscayne Hall. We got to know the students by sitting in our "Mosh Pit" groups, mine was M.P. 4, or THE BIG 6! And we played Name Aerobics to remember each others names. Our first presentation was Diversity 101 and then we had an ice cream social. After the ice cream social we broke out into Mosh Pit groups and discussed what we learned today and talked about the students feelings coming into college and being away from home. Day two was a little more physical and it was started off with a low ropes course. We facilitated low ropes activities including Helium Ring, Magic Carpet, Mouse Trap Maze, Human Golf, and Hot Stuff (which turned out to be a favorite). The students stayed in M.P. groups and had 30 minutes at each station, including some time to reflect on learning. After lunch the students took their True Color tests to see which personality color they fit under. I was one of the few Blues at the retreat. The True Color test is designed to help people with interacting with others who have different personality types and it seemed to have been pretty accurate this weekend. After True Color, we had our first Multicultural Ambassador presentation, then dinner. After dinner we planned our skits that were drawn from a deck of index cards, my group had the song "F- You" sung to country. Planning our skit had to be one of the highlights of the weekend, even thought the skit itself was horribly embarrassing! After the skits each student shared a talent with the whole group. I built up the courage to sing the star spangled banner while one of my M.P. group member signed it (American Sign Language). She said she would only sign it if someone sang it, and I definitely wouldn't have sang it if someone wasn't up there with me. Some other people showed off their karate skills, head stand yoga pose, other languages, break dancing, etc. Then it was reflection time in groups. Every night before bed there was a group of students playing mafia, and it got prettttttty intense! The last day the students were required to dress formally. The day revolved around Multicultural Ambassador presentations, a final group reflection, and then the closing banquet. The students' parents were invited to come to the banquet and it was a really great experience. Three students spoke on stage about their weekend. I was really proud of my group member that spoke! I could tell that the students in my group are going far in college and I cannot wait to see where they end up getting involved at FGCU. The Mosh Pit leaders made paper plate awards for their group members. My group members got the awards of Social Butterfly, Mr. Nickname, All American Girl, Most likely to smuggle weapons into the U.S. (She was from Brazil and her hands are registered weapons from martial arts), Most likely to smuggle a Dotson into the dorms, and Miss FGCU. Most of the students checked out with their parents after the banquet, but some stayed because they had freshman orientation the next day. I had a really great group of students and I am extremely happy that they all got along so well and that they want to stay friends next semester. I hope we can all stay in touch. I had so much fun with the group this weekend that even though I had work at 8am the next day, I stayed another night in the dorms and played games with the freshman all night!
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