Just in time for the holidays, the School of Public Affairs rang in the season with community bonding before finals. The SPA’s Thanksgiving and Graduate Council Friendsgiving hoped to rectify the stress with free food and conversation among staff and students.
The SPA Thanksgiving dinner is not a new concept at American University. It began in 2017 when the dean at the time, Vicki Wilkins, had a vision to build a stronger community within the school, said Justin Williams, associate director of undergraduate recruitment and retention for SPA. The dinner, which took place on Sunday, Nov. 16, has commenced every year since, even with changes in administration. Williams has continued the event this year with the SPA events team.
Williams said the Thanksgiving dinner provides much-needed time for the whole of SPA to come together.
“It was just designed to be an opportunity for people to get together, not in a class, not in an office, but just to have fun, enjoy a free meal before the Thanksgiving holiday happens,” Williams said.
The Thanksgiving dinner, which is open to all staff and students in SPA, is one of the school’s biggest events of the semester. It takes extensive planning and organizing by the SPA events team, according to Williams.
Williams said the dinner fosters a deep sense of community between staff and students outside the classroom. Hosted in the lobby of Kerwin Hall, the evening is a mix of professors and students connecting while enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Williams said he cares deeply about this bonding time within SPA.
“It’s just a time to talk with friends and have fun before people leave for the holidays and the stress of finals and papers and all of that start to really take full effect,” Williams said.
SPA’s Thanksgiving isn’t the only event of its kind. The SPA Graduate Student Council also hopes to bring its student body together on campus during the holiday season.
Forging a sense of community within graduate students can be more challenging but it is just as important to the Graduate Student Council members, said President Galilea Sejas-Machado, a graduate student in SPA.
The SPA Graduate Student Council Friendsgiving is also not a new concept, Sejas-Machado said, as a second-year representative on the council. Sejas-Machado and the council members worked diligently to create an event that was tailored to the SPA graduate student community.
Anfernee Osandu, a SPA graduate student and finance director of the council, said this event has lots to offer.
“I know schedules are busy with finals coming up and midterms having just ended, but I see this as a great opportunity for community collaboration and community engagement,” Osandu said.
In an effort to make the festivities more graduate student-centered, the council decided to move the event to a designated room as opposed to having it in Kerwin Lobby, where it has been previously. Sejas-Machado made this switch in the hopes of having more targeted programming for graduate students, as well as to see what works best for graduate community engagement.
The council's Friendsgiving differed in catering from the SPA one, choosing District Taco for dinner as opposed to the traditional dishes of Thanksgiving, which Osandu believes increases accessibility.
“When we host events, I think the idea is we want it to be as inclusive as possible just to make sure we are incorporating different communities and different lived experiences,” Osandu said.
Teresa Frieberg added that they think people grow tired of the traditional Thanksgiving foods.
As the holidays and the end of semester approach rapidly, the SPA community can be seen coming together, undergraduates and graduate students alike, to find food and conversation.
This article was edited by Samantha Skolnick, Abigail Hatting and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Emma Brown, Avery Grossman and Ava Stuzin.
