Top 10 CampusGroups Events of 2021!
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Top 10 CampusGroups Events of 2021!
In 2021, campus leaders saw the continued need for virtual and hybrid event programming for students to connect actively in their campus communities. Unlike in 2020, though, many on-campus activities resumed for students to safely gather in-person. 🙏
Overall, we have been truly inspired by what our campus partners have been up to in 2021! We’re honored to help support them as they create so many unique opportunities for students, staff and faculty to be together, share ideas, and learn from each other throughout the year. From networking to cultural exploration to creative expression, we’re highlighting 10 of our favorite events created by organizations in CampusGroups partner schools!
Congrats to all of the event organizers for developing such enriching and engaging events for your community members!
#1. NOCHE LATINA: Halloween Edition at Case Western Reserve University 🎃
Where: Cleveland, OH
Why we love it:
Fall is one of our favorite times of the year! There’s always something fun happening on and around campus, especially around Halloween.
La Alianza (a Latinx student organization serving, celebrating and supporting the Case Western Reserve University community) and CWRU’s Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers teams up each semester to present Noche Latina, a Latin club night, as a way to celebrate Latinx culture through music and dance. Through this event, hosting organizations are able to share their culture with the entire Case Western community.
We love the collaboration happening to create Noche Latina! Co-hosting events with other clubs offers more allowances and organizational help and increased student engagement as group officers work together to create the best event possible.
Also, big kudos on a very beautiful & festive flyer design!
Artwork by Laura Silveira Illustration
#2. The TRUE social experience - Tour de France of friendship at Chicago Booth School of Business 🍷
Where: Chicago, IL
Why we love it:
This is without question one of the most unique and engaging events we’ve seen this year! Wine tasting meets speed networking at this truly creative and interactive event for MBA students.
The Wine Club at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business hosted a seriously fun and innovative adventure for business students in the Chicago Booth community!
Attendees were paired randomly to visit a first apartment together, discuss, get to know each other for 15 minutes, and taste wine. Then new pairs visited another apartment for the next 15 minutes, and continued to meet new connections and taste new wines at each transition.
At the end of the event, attendees had made 5 new friends and discovered 5 new favorite wines! Cheers to that!
#3. GARLA LA LAND 2021 AT CWRU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 🎥
Where: Downtown Cleveland, OH
Why we love it:
Now in its 37th year, Doc Opera is a fundraiser and musical production organized by the students and faculty of Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Uniquely, this event draws talent from multiple health graduate programs to write, choreograph, direct and perform together as they create a memorable night of music, skits and dances about medicine, health care and Cleveland itself!
With 466+ registrations, this year’s event was available both in-person in Cleveland and via livestream, allowing guests to participate at their own comfort levels, no matter where they were.
Background: Doc Opera’s primary mission is to raise funds to provide quality healthcare and related services to individuals and families in the community regardless of their ability to pay, through CWRU’s Student-Run Health Clinic. Doc Opera also provides a venue for creative expression and inter-professionalism among the medical and health professional students of Cleveland!
#4. University of California Santa Barbara's Memorial Day Remembrance Event 🎖️
Where: Santa Barbara, CA
Why we love it:
UC Santa Barbara’s Memorial Day Event, hosted by the UCSB Veteran & Staff Association, boasted 200+ registrations! This event served as one of the final sessions of the month-long All-Staff MAYNIA! series, a fantastic and enriching program that elevates and celebrates UCSB staff for the entire month of May!
Utilizing their Shoreline campus engagement platform, event organizers created MAYNIA as a seamless, one-click registration for all of the 19 events - and had great traction with it! We are beyond thrilled to partner with UCSB on turning their creative vision and innovation into engaging, accessible and successful programming for their campus community!
💡 To help support student veteran success, we recently took a look at some different programs that vet-friendly campuses are implementing in their classroom and co-curricular programming. These strategies promote student success and persistence in the transition from military to campus life.
#5. DIWALI CELEBRATION 2021 at usc marshall school of business 🕯️
Where: Los Angeles, CA
Why we love it:
Peace, love and light at Diwali Celebration 2021, an enriching event presented by the South Asian Business Association at USC Marshall School of Business! Diwali is one of the major festivals celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, and celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness.
Members of the USC Marshall community gathered together to ring in the festival of lights with authentic Indian food, drink and dance!
The South Asian Business Association (SABA) brings vibrant South Asian culture to USC Marshall. The group organizes a variety of cultural and career-centric events that leverage the strong South Asian community on campus and helps foster a deeper understanding of the region. They also strive to be both a family and a “home away from home” for all their members. 💙
Affinity groups on college campuses like SABA are formed around a shared identity, with the common goal to build community and foster inclusion and awareness in the broader community.
Especially for underrepresented populations, joining an affinity group or actively participating at their cultural events can help cultivate a sense of belonging, a key factor in student success and retention!
#6. Haas Tech Summit 2021 at UC Berkeley HAAS School of Business 💻
Where: Berkeley, CA
Why we love it:
With over 200 registrations, Haas Tech Summit 2021 is Berkeley-Haas Technology Club’s flagship event designed for MBA students pursuing careers in tech.
The Summit provided an in-depth look into careers in technology, the different sectors and roles in the industry, and all students need to know about the recruiting process. Attendees were also able to hear about the latest industry trends and build relationships with alumni in a networking happy hour!
#7. Winter Days on the Arts Quad at Cornell University ☀️
Where: Ithaca, NY
Why we love it:
After an unprecedented year of virtual events on college campuses worldwide, students everywhere were beyond ready to connect safely in-person. At Cornell University, nearly 700 guests registered for Winter Days on the Arts Quad, a two-day event featuring a succulent patch, fire pits, outdoor activities, snacks, prizes and more. Co-sponsored by multiple campus departments working together, this was Cornell’s first in-person event for the spring semester!
At CampusGroups, in our mission to support campus life programming that enriches the student experience, we are always looking to improve upon the ways students are able to connect, engage and succeed (even remotely!) We love to see what our creative campus partners are up to — and to share engaging event ideas for other campuses looking for inspiration!
Here are a few ideas we’ve gathered:
#8. Black History Month Paint Party at Oakwood University 🎨
Where: Virtual / Huntsville, AL
Why we love it:
Special shout-out to Oakwood University for celebrating Black History by honoring their roots as an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) institution of higher learning. The university’s Black History Paint Night event celebrated Black History in February with high student engagement and creativity via painting and self-expression!
“It is important to remember where we came from and continue to make way for others to come. We wanted our students to feel proud of their heritage,” says a representative from the United Student Movement organization, which hosted the event fully virtually so that everyone could participate safely. Even though they had to cut back on their usual in-person events due to COVID-19, they were able to host “a black history school spirit week virtually”. A representative club leader also reported how he appreciated that students were able to easily RSVP for the event online. “It has been a great help considering we are focused on COVID safety”.
We are very grateful for successful student organizations like the United Student Movement Club for choosing CampusGroups help celebrate Black History Month in a virtual format!
#9. Farm Harvest Festival at Case Western Reserve University 🌾
Where: Cleveland, OH
Why we love it:
Food, fun, farm and friends, what’s not to love? Well over 300 attendees turned out for an afternoon of activities, performances by student groups and individuals, chili, apple fritters, s’mores and more!
But there’s more to this event than just a good time! The mission of the Farm Harvest Festival is to engage the CWRU community with its natural environment to promote appreciation of and education about the merits of Farm resources, campus sustainability initiatives, and environmental consciousness as a whole. 💚
The event was presented by the Student Sustainability Council, an organization that aims to promote and develop a more sustainable mode of life for students and faculty on CWRU’s campus.
Feeling inspired? Philanthropic students looking to take action can play a major role in advancing sustainability efforts on their campuses! Getting involved in an environmental club offers them the opportunity to educate peers and lead outreach on local and global issues affecting their community and beyond.
#10. Scaling Good Jobs and Culture at Start-ups at MIT Sloan School of Management 💼
Where: Virtual / Cambridge, MA
Why we love it:
In 2021, it was not a simple undertaking for campus leaders to create such inspiring and insightful learning opportunities and event programming for their communities in accessible remote settings. Accordingly, we are thrilled to highlight the impressive attendance of MIT Sloan School of Management’s Scaling Good Jobs and Culture at Start-ups, a virtual panel discussion with over 200 guests!
This was the second event of the “Building a Better World of Work Discussion Series” and featured three distinct views on what it takes to scale with people in mind, and what challenges founders and early stage employees may face along the way. The panel was a joint event across MIT Sloan School of Management’s People & Organization’s Club, MIT Sloan’s Entrepreneurship Club, and the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER).
HONORABLE MENTION: CampusGroups Rendez-Vous ‘21! 🥐💥
Where: Virtual, Worldwide
Why we love it:
We would be remiss not to mention one more favorite event from 2021 — our own creation with some of our favorite people!
On Friday, March 12, 2021, we hosted our first virtual conference for the wonderfully creative and innovative members of the CampusGroups User Community, Rendez-Vous, and we couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out! 💙
Over 200 attendees from 7 countries and 90 of our partner campuses joined us for this special day! In just one day full of ideas, discovery and inspiration, our 11 speakers hosted 6 sessions and 15 breakout sessions. We explored critical topics in higher education including COVID-19 responses and processes, student engagement strategies, mobile apps and student behavior tracking, integrating co-curricular and academic resources to support student success.
Our User Community members gathered to discuss their challenges and victories, and share some of their best practices, stories and successes within our platform. Especially in this challenging year, we can’t tell you how rewarding it has been to gather our campuses together to share and learn from each other as one CampusGroups community.
We are excited to continue hosting more virtual and hybrid conferences in the future and to continue developing more CampusGroups community events throughout the year for all our CampusGroups partners to connect more often. A huge thank you to all of our amazing speakers, partners and team for rocking this milestone event and being part of the CampusGroups family!
Would you like to learn about managing student life & creating successful events on your campus on a centralized platform that students love? Please feel welcome to reach out to us to chat with a CampusGroups product expert. We’d love to hear about your campus!
