My Time With V.I.S.A.: Coordinator, September 2009 – March 2010, Part I
At the end of the summer semester of 2009, Laura Prada left the team after her graduation. In the wake of her departure, she promoted me to the Coordinator position. I officially assumes the Coordinator position on August 20, 2009. My first priority was to assist the new I.S.O. Coordinator Sheryl June Bennett with the upcoming International Students Orientation for fall 2009. However, a bigger concern was the carrying out of V.I.S.A.’s new project, the “UWindsor Amazing Race”, which was scheduled for September 11th, 2009 during Windsor Welcome Week.
The UWindsor Amazing Race was the first such event V.I.S.A. would host. It was also V.I.S.A’s stand-alone event at a Windsor Welcome Week since 2007. The event would be similar to the “Amazing Race” television show, but with the tasks being held within the campus. The purpose of the event was aimed at freshmen students. There were several purposes of the event;
- Provide freshmen students with an understanding of the diversity of the student body at the University of Windsor,
- Get freshmen students familiar with some important buildings and offices at the University of Windsor,
- Promote V.I.S.A. with new freshmen students, and
- Provide a volunteering opportunity for students in a unique event.
Planning for the event proceeded on three stages;
- Attracting volunteers who will help with the creation of the tasks, and display booths,
- Creating the display booths, finalizing the tasks and assigning volunteer duties,
- Acquiring sponsorship and prizes, and
- Promoting the event and attracting participants.
During the last couple of weeks of August, we began preparing the displays and tasks for each country. The selected countries for the inaugural UWindsor Amazing Race were Canada, Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy and Sri Lanka. Each task would be related to the one of the countries designated. We decided to have 12 teams of two each participate in the event, which would begin outside the Leddy Library and end at the International Student Centre (I.S.C.). At the end of the event, we would have a pizza party for the participants and volunteers of the event at the basement of ISC, which would be used for future V.I.S.A. events as well.
We acquired sponsorship from River Place Student Residences in Windsor, as well as Drunkin’ Burrito Restaurant in Down-town Windsor. In addition, the main prize was sponsored by the Educational Development Centre (E.D.C.). This was thanks to the initiative of the Executive Director of the EDC, Mrs. Brooke White. The main prize was two tickets to see comedian Russell Peters’ performance in Windsor on September 28th. The consolation prizes were sponsored by the I.S.C. at the initiative of the International Student Advisor, Mr. Enrique Chacon. They were gift certificates for the 2nd and 3rd placed teams from the University of Windsor Bookstore.
Volunteers at work on the Canada display board
Volunteers at work on the Bangladesh display
On the day of the event, we promoted the event through a table at the starting point, outside Leddy Library. However, due to the fact that it was a Friday, there was less students to reach out to than we expected. Therefore we only attracted 10 teams of two for the event. But the event went ahead as scheduled, and was completed without hindrances.
The Italy display at the UWindsor Amazing Race
Participants and volunteers relaxing after the event
The winners receiving the prizes from Mrs. Brooke White
Volunteers at the end of the event
The feedback from the participants was very positive, as was that of the volunteers. Everyone had a great time, and we felt the event should be a permanent fixture in the V.I.S.A. calendar for the future. We also managed to receive promotion for the event from the University of Windsor’s Public Affairs and Communications in the run-up to the event. It promoted our event in the UWindsor Daily News, which is an online publication which is sent to all faculty and staff and a large number of subscribers, including alumni. In addition, the Windsor Star newspaper ran a picture and small article on our event as well. The Windsor Star is Windsor’s largest circulation newspaper. The links for those articles are below;
Part II: http://pumudu.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/cody-hall-flags/
