Chairperson Andy Ortega and Vice Chairperson Laura Anaya-Morga of the Associate Student Program Board co-hosted the ASPB’s 35th anniversary celebration. On Friday, March 5, the six divisions of ASPB had some of their directors demonstrate their respective fields of work to give students insight on how ASPB is run. The event highlighted and acknowledged the collective effort it takes for ASPB to organize events for the student body.
Kickstarting the event was Julian Gracian, one of the directors of concerts. The director of concerts organizes the biggest music events at UCR, including Block Party and Spring Splash. Gracian introduced the opening act, DJ Medek. This DJ played some energetic beats and encouraged viewers at home to dance along to the music. Medek actively interacted with the chat, allowing for students to give him some song recommendations. Viewers called for songs such as “Too Player” by Vinny West and “Up” by Cardi B, and Medek did his best to deliver.
But playing music wasn’t the only job Medek was tasked with for the night. After a few minutes of playing tunes, he was asked to read out the questions for a brief trivia contest. The questions for this contest challenged the viewers’ knowledge of UCR. Players in the chat were quick to answer questions such as “What are the six divisions in the ASPB?” and “What does the HUB stand for?” Some questions were harder than others, but students were able to learn a lot about campus from each other’s answers.
Following the trivia contest was a brief demonstration in advertising by Jameson Lee, a director of marketing. He shared his screen to show viewers how digital posters are created to promote events on ASPB’s social media platforms. When he finished his presentation, Esther Esho, an additional director of concerts, announced that ASPB will be streaming “Mean Girls” for 24 hours. Esho shared a QR code that would give people access to a Google Form and the movie link.
The event concluded with a demonstration on how to create a vision board by Connie Marmolejo, a mental health educator at UCR. Vision boards are a collection of images that visually represent a mood, idea or dream. Marmolejo encouraged the audience to take some time to craft their own digital vision boards based on what they want to see in their lives in 2021. While students worked, Marmolejo kept the mood light by playing some music on Spotify. A few people were then chosen to share their finished products.
Overall, the event successfully shared the hard work behind the ASPB team. Anyone who attended the event was welcomed to enter their name in a raffle for the chance to win some cool giveaways, such as an ASPB jacket or blanket. Attending the celebration was a great stress relief from upcoming finals, and I can’t wait to attend more of these events in the future
