By Mackenzie Davis
On Thursday Feb, 13 Grand Rapids Community College Campus Activities Board held their “City Lights and Starry Nights” winter dance where around 50 students gathered for the event.
Students were shuttled to the Bissell Tree House. What was waiting for them was a dance floor complete with a disco ball, DJ, a catered food spread and a beautiful view of the city beyond. President of the CAB, Brayden Smith, talked about the importance of events such as this one and why, in his last year at GRCC, this event’s success meant a lot.
“I mean with GRCC we are kind of just a commuter campus so a lot of people- especially students I spoke to- a lot of times they just come to school, they go to class, they go back home and then they work. So they’re not really socializing…Our job as the Campus Activities Board is to make it more welcoming and provide events for people to socialize and meet new people from GRCC,” Smith said. “It’s the last dance unfortunately for me in my GRCC journey, I’m very happy with it. I feel like it’s one of our best ones.”
As GRCC students and their friends entered the dance floor, socialized and took pictures, Smith shared some of the tasks needed to pull off such a successful event like this one.
“You’re contacting vendors, you’re doing a walkthrough for venus to figure out which one is the best fit for us, you’re figuring out catering, getting quotes because usually the college requires three quotes if it’s over a certain amount to make sure we’re getting the best price,” Smith said. “Recruiting people to help set up and tear everything down and getting all of our marketing set in order…that’s just some of the big stuff.”
GRCC student Austin Mansaray agreed with Smith on the importance of social events at the college.
“You know I am very excited to see this great group of people coming together to celebrate GRCC,” Mansaray said. “It’s a great event, it’s always put on great…I mean for a community college is really inclusive and really wants to build that relationship with their students and I really appreciate that.”
Kyle Bishop heard about the event through his friends, when they saw the posting on social media, and was interested in the free party.
“We’ve always been going to different dances from high school and thought well- I heard from one of my friends that put it in a group chat ‘hey its RSVP so you can just go and do it’ so now we’re here,” Bishop said. “Getting to be with friends and getting to be with them but outside of a classroom setting and just getting to know them more.”
For students interested in attending any future events the CAB holds, but are feeling intimidated, Smith makes a case for why they should join.
“I always tell people to take a risk, I mean you can always leave. So it’s not like once you show up you have to stay the whole time. To try it and also to show up to multiple events and not just one because we try to do a variety,” Smith said.
Students can follow the events through the club’s Instagram or website for more information.
CAB has more events planned throughout the semester and students are encouraged to join any of these events. Mansaray shared his final thoughts on how the CAB brings students together at GRCC before he went off into the dance to have a great time with his friends.
“This really shows that they are trying to give their students a great opportunity to just have a good night, have a great time and you know just let loose,” Mansaray said. “It’s the end of the week and we just want to have a good time and it’s obvious that GRCC just really loves their students.”
