Being an incoming freshman is a daunting experience. On top of the haul from the car to the dorm, you are bombarded with pamphlets and brochures to join clubs, in fact, I think that we can all agree that walking through the activities fair later that day may have been the most stressful day of the first week. It’s even more stressful when you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, so that’s why I created a Spoon University Chapter.
St. John’s University didn’t have an opportunity to get involved with the food industry, but two days later when I saw a SpoonU article on Facebook, I knew that wouldn’t be the case anymore. I wanted to start a chapter. Reaching out to the amazing peeps at Spoon HQ was the best email I sent during my first semester at school, and thus, my food baby was born.
It has officially been two months of having my food baby, and being called the “food girl” (yes, this is something that happens regularly, including being screamed at from across the Great Lawn), and I couldn’t be happier. Spoon Univeristy is the best thing that could have happened to me. I have made a toooon of friends (shout out to my amazing team); all of whom share the same love of food and educating ourselves on the best tips and tricks to tackle the horror of eating college food.
GIF courtesy of giphy.com
Along with amazing friends, I had discovered a new talent of mine: marketing. The petition process had allowed me to channel my inner Billy Mays and pitch Spoon to over 300 kids on campus. This allowed me to not only learn the do’s and don’ts of trying to get a petition signed (#SpoonTip: DON’T come up behind someone. Not only does it lead to the possibility of being hit, you freak the person out and they don’t want to sign), but that if you are truly passionate about something people recognize that and want to help you reach your goal. Thank you to all the Johnnies that signed, mucho loveo.
GIF courtesy of giphy.com
The most important lesson I took out of petition week was how to accept a failure. Since not everyone on campus is going to want to sign your petition or want to get to know how amazing spoon is (sad face), it is important to be able to accept that and go out and find the kids that do.
I also learned the true value of BlackBoard: mass emailing. You haven’t truly developed your BlackBoard Jedi Skillz if you haven’t sent an email to every single student your professors have.
Spoon University has truly helped me navigate my place on campus and has given me an outlet for my creativity and passions. It has begun to shape me for the real world (because let’s face, we are adults, now…yuck) and Secret Sauce has taught me so many useful applications that will help me land amazing jobs.
GIF courtesy of giphy.com
If you are looking for a way to get involved and branch out on campus, I highly suggest getting involved with Spoon on your campus or creating your very own food baby.
Photo by Kelsey Butler