Ali Curry: Studying with a Twist
Throughout the semester, I helped plan study sessions with the Global Scholars Program Student Organization (GSPSO). This event occurred twice this semester, once in October and once in December, each one having its own theme. The October study session was centered around Halloween, which included a variety of candies and some spooky music for those to enjoy. And while I was not able to attend this event, from the debrief I had with the GSPSO it was well received by the community! This even included some Collaborative Group Facilitators bringing their Collaborative Groups as part of their meeting.
The December study session was focused around three widely-celebrated December holidays including Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Each of which included decorations and traditional foods from said holiday. The overall goal was to mimic the feeling my people once had as children when it was the final day of school before winter break and you would wear pajamas to school while watching the Polar Express. So, for the GSP December study session, we had those attending wear pajamas, played instrumental holiday music, and served traditional foods (such as latkes, sweet potato pie, and hot chocolate).
Stock photo. Sweet potato pie was one of the traditional foods shared at the December study event. Sweet potatos are similar to yams, which come from West Africa and are difficult to grow in North America. They became an acceptable alternative for enslaved Africans, a staple of Black cuisine, and a traditional Kwanzaa dish. Read more from Sweet Potato Comfort Pie.
Stock photo. The study session also featured latkes, a type of fried potato pancake and popular Hanukkah dish, especially among Ashkenazi Jews. During Hanukkah, many Jews celebrate with fried foods, symbolizing the miracle of a one-day supply of oil lasting eight days.
Unfortunately, the turnout wasn’t as great for this one but I personally enjoyed the event as a whole. Apart from aiding in planning portions of the events, I helped with set-up and take down as well. I arrived at the GSP office around thirty minutes before the event took place to gather the materials needed to decorate the room, set up the music, and set the food out. And once the event had concluded I helped to transport everything back to the GSP office and decided what was to be done with the leftover food.
I proposed the idea to host study sessions because I love a good study session. It creates a central location where people can be productive and get work done. And as someone who can struggle to focus, they really aid me in this area. One of my takeaways from organizing these study sessions was how everyone has different ways of studying, and this is something we had explored in preparation of the event. Some people are able to just sit and grind out a paper while others need breaks, and some can study with sound while others need complete silence. When doing study sessions in the future, exploring these differences could be beneficial to the GSP community and accommodate different learning styles. My second takeaway would be to try and advertise the event sooner rather than later. Although we still had time to advertise both, these were less frequently occurring events, which I think requires more advertising time and this may have led to the smaller turnout than we were expecting. Putting more effort into advertising, in theory, would lead to a larger turnout and display a more united GSP community.
Finally, coordinating a group of people's specific skills and resources is an important aspect of community organizing and was certainly important to hosting the study sessions. During the planning process and execution of these events, and even reflecting now, each person had a specific role that they volunteered for based on their specialties and capacities – even non-traditional ones, such as time. I, for example, had time to set up and take down things while others had cars to get food. All of this molded together in order to create a seamless event that provided a sense of community to GSP members while studying.