Associated Students, Inc. is taking Long Beach State’s Week of Welcome online starting on Aug. 31.
The previously two-day event on upper campus is now a five day virtual fair, a transition that has been a challenge since May for the staff at Beach Pride events, organizers of Week of Welcome, to solve.
James Ahumada, senior communications manager at ASI, explained that despite the notable difference of how was being accessed, it was important to ensure that Week of Welcome was still recognizable to the CSULB community.
Another concern was how the digital setting could cause difficulties for hearing or visually impaired students interested in participating. Sabrina Ware, Beach Pride events coordinator, explained how finding a platform with those accessibility features was a priority.
Week of Welcome will be hosted through the app Eventsential, which will work for both browser and app. Students can see what events are happening daily, as well as view the profiles of organizations they are interested in joining.
“We’re basically building an entire website from scratch,” Ware said.
As of Friday, Aug. 29, approximately 200 organizations and 1,000 students are registered for Week of Welcome.
Lead Program Assistant Leanne Meyers discussed how Beach Pride wanted to organize virtual activities for students to participate in during Week of Welcome like speed friending, a twist on speed dating to encourage students to meet their peers.
“We wanted to make it not as overwhelming as it needs to be,” Meyers said.
Although a virtual Week of Welcome was unexpected, Ahumada discussed how changes were made to this event to meet the needs of more students, like extending the duration of the event with a morning and afternoon session per day.
Ware agreed, noting how students who were enrolled in night classes, like graduate students, often missed out in the event.
Both Ware and Meyers hope that students at Week of Welcome this semester will see all the opportunities they have to get involved.
“We still want to provide that college experience for people,” Meyers said.
Students can register for Week of Welcome with their CSULB email and begin previewing the event.