If you could change the three flavors in a neapolitan ice cream to three others, which would you choose? Why did you pick the major you did? What three items would you take with you if you knew you were going to be left on an abandoned island? Icebreaker questions circulated through a hopeful crowd of about 35 students in the OSU Rookery during The Super Single Slam Sesh.
A Valentine’s Day mixer put on by Otter Media and LitMatch, the event featured candy gram making and slam poetry before turning into a singles mingle. Students sporting name tags and colored stickers corresponding to interests wandered around the space, taking turns chatting with strangers.
Speed dating took on a little less of a traditional method. Instead of having people sit across from one another and rotate every few minutes, Otter Media had everyone up on their feet and finding a new person to chat with every few minutes with prompted questions. This set up allowed people to find others that had the same interests and sexualities displayed on their nametags.
Photo by Hayley Matto
Lie Lie, a first-year Japanese language culture major, was excited during the singles mingle, “At first meeting new people was a little awkward, but ultimately I feel like it’s been really nice getting out of my comfort zone.”
Meanwhile, Lee Berg, a first-year marine science major and member of Otter Media said that the holiday-themed crafts were her favorite part of the event.
“It’s been nice watching all the groups and various club members bond together over doing something fun, like making the candy grams,” Berg said. ”I also feel like we had a great turn out.”
Cece Nepacena, a fourth-year business major and president of LitMatch shared the same sentiment. “I feel like the turn out was great, especially for a Saturday event, there was a great blend of genders present. This is a pretty introverted campus so it was nice hearing people felt proud of mingling and that this event served as a mixer for everyone.”
Hadley Joedicke, a fourth-year humanities and communications major, said that she really enjoyed the safety and mindfulness that went into hosting this event. “I met so many new people and faces. I would absolutely attend another event like this. I think having safe spaces like this on campus to explore meeting new people out of my comfort zone is super important. It was also really cool getting to know Otter Media and what they do on campus.”
“I also am pro dating face-to-face versus the apps, it’s nice to meet people in person then through the screen.” said Joedicke.
While it’s not clear that anyone walked away from this event with a date, it appeared a lot of new friends and community connections were made.
Photo by Hayley Matto