Ronia Cabansag: On this week’s episode, EMU’s Campus Life Department and the Office of Wellness and Community Responsibility offer a “speed friending” event to EMU students. In city news, the Jewish Vocational Service offers a support group for recent college graduates, and local community members host a weekly open mic night at the Triple Goddess Tasting Room. I’m Ronia Cabansag, sitting in for Liz Hornyak, and this is the Eastern Echo Podcast.
EMU’s Campus Life Department and the Office of Wellness and Community Responsibility have partnered to organize Speed Friending. This virtual event happens through Zoom on Thursdays from 6:30-7:30 p.m., and is co-hosted by Keri Geis and Isabel Berg. During the event, students participate in icebreakers and rotational break out rooms so that they can connect with one another and form friendships in a safe way during the COVID-19 pandemic. Geis had this to say about the event.
Keri Geis: I was working on trying to look and see, just based on observation, what students were looking for and what they might need from a wellness perspective. Because what our office follows is the eight dimensions of wellness, and one of those is social wellness.
On the EMU Engage App I saw a lot of people were kind of talking about, “Hey, it’s hard to make friends. Does anyone want to be friends? Here’s my snapchat, here’s a little description of me, here’s a picture.” So I was trying to think of a way to be able to provide that for students.
Nick (Pomante), who is my boss, mentioned RHA originally doing an event called Speed Friending, so I ended up getting connected with Isabel through Campus Life, and we started brainstorming and talking about hosting the event.
Cabansag: Berg, the undergraduate assistant of activities and engagement for Campus Life, added, “We hope that not only do they get their fill of social interaction but they also come back again because it was a positive and welcoming experience for them so then we could create a community for people to come, sit down, talk, and meet new people.”
The next speed friending meeting will be tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. For more information and updates about speed friending, you can follow EMU’s Snapchat, Campus Life’s Instagram page, and the EMU Today Calendar at today.emich.edu/calendar
The Jewish Vocational Service, also known as JVS, is hosting a virtual support group for recent college graduates. The support group started holding sessions on Jan. 27, and will continue to do so until Feb. 24. This virtual support group creates workshops that focus on job hunting, building resumes, cover letters, networking, and mock interviews. Here’s Jason Charnas, the Director of Business and Career Services for JVS.
Jason Charnas: The ultimate goal is to be able to provide a supportive network and a supportive group of people who are in similar predictions to be able to work together and receive services from our staff, so we can help people on that employment journey.
Cabansag: The Jewish Vocational service plans to continue this type of support in April and May for those graduating this semester. For more information about the Jewish Vocational Service you can go to their website at https://www.jvshumanservices.org/
Two Ypsilanti community members, Jonas Berzankis and Kandy Fredrick co-host a virtual event called “Zoom Community Open Mic” at the Triple Goddess Tasting Room every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. The purpose of this event is to allow members of the Ypsilanti community to show off their talents. Throughout the sessions there have been local artists who have become regular performers.
One of these regulars, Milan Seth, stated, “I have tried to make music a part of my life for a long time. I need to have a musical outlet in my life. I feel like I just need to do it. It’s a very important outlet. For me to touch an audience in any way possible is a blessing.”
For information about this event you can go to the Triple Goddess Tasting Room’s Facebook page.
As always thank you so much for tuning in to the Eastern Echo Podcast. Don’t forget to tune in next Wednesday for more community and university news. Today’s episode was reported by Emma Henri, Bianca Ramsey and Cedrick Charles, scripted by Jasmine Boyd, and produced by Ashlee Buhler and Ethan Myers.
