We’ve all been there. The awkward moment when you don’t know what to say to the other mentors that you seen at training because that’s just it… you only see them at training. At the University of Miami we decided to change that. We wanted our trainings to be warm events where we could share both the positive and negative aspects of being a college student and SWSG mentor. In order to get that kind of connection, we realized we had to build a bond.
This bond building event took the form of a tea party. At first all we knew was that we wanted to have the event during the same week of Valentine’s Day to go along with our theme of ‘showing cross-chapter love’. The Alice in Wonderland theme quickly followed as our chapter became more excited about planning the event. We had two event pre-decorating sessions and got yummy treats such as raspberry thumbprint cookies and blue lemonade (lemonade + blue hawaiian punch).
The event took place on Sunday, February 17th from 1-4pm and we were fortunate enough to get turn-out from all the South Florida SWSG chapters, but one. We had games such as Apples to Apples and Uno at each of the four tables. One heated game of Taboo (there was some unethical shaking of the hourglass timer going on by one team…), several edgy rounds of Painting the Roses Red (a variation of Hot Potato), one balloon filled conclusion to Follow the White Rabbit, and a reading of the SWSG Mission Statement later proved that bonding occurred. The subsequent dancing of the Electric Slide proves it.
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Adaeze Ajoku has been a part of the University of Miami Chapter of Strong Women, Strong Girls since January 2011. She is currently a senior studying Mathematics & Anthropology with a minor in English.