By Nicole Diseker
The Office of Student Life hosted the annual President’s Partners Project Dec. 4.
This event gives SE organizations such as the Presidents Leadership Class, American Chemical Society, Student Government Association and Alpha Chi a chance to interact with Durant Middle School students during a night of games and holiday activities.
The night was filled with games that required lots of energy, such as Gorilla-Man-Gun, which is similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors. Students did icebreakers and ate pizza afterward.
The event was founded in 1990 and was held at Nickels and Dimes until the business closed, then moved to the bowling alley and is currently being held in SE’s Student Union, according to Liz Howard, student life coordinator.
Faculty members of Durant Middle School chose the students invited to this event, according to Howard. These students may be foster children, from a family with little income or may have parental problems.
Presidential Partners, a service project for the Durant community, throws this party each year in order to give middle school students a chance to interact with college students, while also giving SE students the opportunity to spend an evening with the children and remember what it was like being in the forth to sixth grades.
SE’s student organizations sponsored children by buying a $25 gift card to Wal-Mart.
Liz Howard participated in Presidential Partners during her time as a student at SE.
“They have this idea of us as ‘Oh my gosh, you’re in college. You’re so cool.’ I can guarantee you that I was not the coolest girl in college, but to them we were the coolest kids ever,” said Howard.
Howard hopes that getting to interact with college students at this age will give these middle school students the idea that college is where they want to go after high school.
According to Howard, this event gives middle school students the chance to ask lots of questions about college.
They ask about student activities and classes, if they go to parties, what it’s like living in co-ed dorms or if the classes are hard.
“I think it’s a little bit of an eye-opener for SE students and reminds them of where they were in middle school.
These kids sometimes tell you the truth without even thinking about it,” said Howard. Last year, according to Howard, a middle school student asked one of the sorority members if she could take a whole pizza home to her family.
“She said they hadn’t eaten anything but beans and rice all week and she thought her family would really like it,” said Howard. “The sorority member said yes, of course, please take more.”