The Freshman Gala of 2015
The Leadership Gala is a tradition of the Leadership Development Honors Program that happens in the early months of every Spring semester. The Gala is orchestrated and executed by the current Freshman class in the program. This year, it was the Class of 2018’s turn to be the hosts, and they decided to roll out the red carpet with a Hollywood-themed evening! The event took place on the Wednesday, February 11th, from 7pm to 10pm. However, work had begun many weeks before the curtains were rolled back!
The interesting thing about the planning of this gala is that the team goes in virtually blind, with a few points of contact and resources provided by the program director, Michael Reuter. The event generates a lot of excitement! The most prominent idea is that the current Freshman team should strive to build upon what has been done in previous years. In the past, themes have included The Great Gatsby and a Bond-esque Casino Night complete with flash mobs and raffle prizes. The Class of 2018 began sitting down for meetings in mid-October to get the ideas flowing, and it was immediately clear what the real, valuable lessons from this project would be. The team was faced, for the first time as a whole, with a tangible budget, realistic boundaries, deadlines, and an ever-approaching goal. Ultimately, the goal of the Freshman Leadership Gala is to nurture comradery between all classes of leadership during an enjoyable evening of dinner and entertainment. Furthermore, the open-ended nature of the assignment allowed for extensive collaboration between freshman team members. Thus, nobody was to be excluded from the development of the final product: the gala. The process was set up to allow the Class of 2018 to experience the real challenges and successes that come attached to collectively producing a final result that is bigger than the individual and is a product of the whole.
The most focused work for the gala began during the winter break between the Fall 2014 semester and the Spring 2015 semester. The Freshman Class divided into teams depending upon their interests. The team categories were as follows: Budgeting, Raffle/Fundraising, Playbill Design, Music, Decorations, Tech, and Food. Each team was given a general outline of their respective jobs. From there, creative, diligent work was done between individual members. Collaboration between teams supplemented the richness and diversity of the ideas that were implemented into the final picture. General co-ordination of groups was handled by Angeli Fernandes and Caroline Strickland, whose jobs were to make sure the different groups’ work meshed together on the day-of. It was during this part of the project that many real-life problems began to manifest. Team members learned to address these challenges on the spot, with plenty of feedback from other team members on what they appreciated about the solution and what they suggested improvement on. Truly, it was a learning and bonding experience for the entire team.
The day-of the Gala was a day of celebration. The Leadership Program enjoyed a red carpet with a customized Leadership Development Program Backdrop, a paparazzi, a delicious buffet with chocolate fountain, laser lights, DJing, and a dinner show, complete with vocal performances by Collin Bailey and Angeli Fernandes, a game, and an awards show! The event came together beautifully, thanks to a team-wide effort by an extraordinarily talented group, and the Freshman Class is proud and honored to say that it was a wonderful night, enjoyed by all!
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