Welcome Back Party

Overview

This kickoff helped newcomers connect quickly and feel the program’s creative, welcoming energy in just 10 minutes, before things got awkward.

Food and Small Talk Weren’t Enough

As the new Community Coordinator for Emerson College’s arts and entrepreneurship program, my first job was to turn the usual welcome-back party into something warmer and more memorable than just snacks and polite networking.

Socializing on Easy Mode

The Ugly Baby: get everyone involved from the very start. With student ambassadors by my side, we brought the program’s spirit of collaboration and creativity to life through playful activity stations that welcomed everyone to jump right in.

We built four stations:

• At the entrance, prompt-driven name tags invited bold opinions, breaking the ice and sparking genuine conversations from the moment people walked in.

• Yard Pong offered a playful way for those who liked to break the ice through action rather than words.

• A world map wall let students proudly tag their hometowns, creating a colorful snapshot of the community’s global roots.

• An AI Midjourney creation station had students toss in wild nouns and watch as imaginative mashups were generated like wizard Pikachu or boat Lightning McQueen.

An Event Worth Staying For

Even though many students were meeting for the first time, the mood stayed relaxed and open. More people arrived as the night went on rather than leaving early. People hung out at the stations, moved around easily, and started conversations without the usual awkwardness. The best sign was when an upperclassman called a friend during the event to say it was actually worth coming.