Have you ever felt that your weekends are always the same and you want to do something different? Something new? Something fun? Change It Up is a student organization that works to provide various activities and fun events to students as an alternative to going out on the weekend. The goal of the student organization is to connect students who have similar interests, whether they are substance free or not, so that they can spend time together and have fun. Over the summer, the student organization went through complete rebranding. Formerly known as Fun Without Drinking (FWD), or “Forward,” the student organization wanted to eliminate the negative connotations that went along with that name. They often ran into a problem where students who did drink felt that they weren’t welcomed.
However, the student organization meetings and events are actually open to anyone who is looking for a change of pace on any particular day or weekend.
Kris Bosela, President, descriped Change It Up’s mission saying, “we do have the overall arching tone of the club to provide a substance free community and promote the substance free culture on the weekend, but our goal is really to provide events [so that students can] meet people and be social whether or not they drink.”
On Sunday, September 14, Change It Up sponsored its first large-scale event of the year entitled “New Kids On The Block.” Modeled after a suburban block party, the event took place on the Fitness Center Quad and featured various other student organizations as the block party booths as well as some performances from student groups on campus. The goal of New Kids On The Block was to give students a little bit more time to hang out with the student organizations in attendance after short introductions at the Student Organization Fair a few weeks ago. The event had a large turnout, and Change It Up is planning to make it an annual tradition and build it up as a more well known event in future years.
Some additional events Change It Up will be sponsoring later on this semester include apple picking, a Murder Mystery party on Halloween, a laser tag outing, a bake-off competition, a Cortaca live-stream viewing party, a trivia night, and a dance exhibition and workshop with Greatest Common Factor, a local hip-hop performance group. Like ChangeItUpIC on Facebook and follow @ChangeItUpIC on Twitter and Instagram for updates and more information on these upcoming events.
Sofia Meredith, Social Media Coordinator, has been a member of Change It Up since she came to IC and really appreciates the welcoming community it provides. She said, “I found a group of people who accept me for whoever I am. [Change It Up is] a really good place to figure out who you are without feeling pressured because we’re [a student organization that’s] not geared towards any particular activity, so it’s not like you have to be good at one particular thing to fit in.”
Kara Goldin, Vice President, agrees. “It’s a cool way to meet new people, people you wouldn’t normally be interacting with, get away for a small period of time, and [for upperclassmen to] help out underclassmen [by hanging out with them and giving them advice].”
Change It Up meets every Friday at 7:00 p.m. on the second floor of Friends Hall. New members are always welcome, so join them if you’re looking for a way to change it up!
To learn more about Change it Up and other student organizations click here to read Club Hub Volume 5 Issue 3.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20141012130728283