Kristina Valdez | Arts and Life Editor
Grab a seat on the lawn of the SUB Bowl this Wednesday with a Steel City Pop in hand and start the 2017 fall semester off with Mosaic Week.
“For freshmen, especially [minority] freshman, it can be overwhelming trying to decide where they will fit in at [Baylor] as a predominantly white institution that it is,” said Kristen Williams, Cedar Hill junior and President of NAACP. “Mosaic Mixer gives freshmen the opportunity to find a place here at Baylor and join a lot of organizations that they are interested in.”
Mosaic Mixer begins at 6 p.m. Wed. with an organization fair. Over 40 student organizations will be hosting tables outside of the SUB.
Just as their Twitter boasts them as being “home of #freefoodalerts,” Baylor’s Department of Multicultural Affairs will serve free food to the first 500 students. From Shorty’s Pizza to Steel City Pops, the SUB Bowl will be a student’s haven from syllabus week.
At 7 p.m., 10 organizations will step on stage to represent themselves in ways that go beyond traditional speeches. The organizations performing are Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Baylor Intellectual Property Organization, African Student Association, Heavenly Voices Gospel Choir, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Baylor Korean Student Association, Lambda Phi Epsilon, Filipino Student Association, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Phi Beta Sigma.
Each performance will be judged by a panel for first, second and third place. Students sitting in the audience can expect to see a wide range of performances from spoken word to step.
“We will be giving away free T-shirts and other giveaways between acts,” said Kristin Koch, graduate apprentice of Multicultural Affairs.
The following evening, Baylor’s Black Student Union will host Black Student Welcome in the Barfield Drawing Room of the SUB. The Black Student Union will present “House Party” on Thursday, as it begins its first year as an organization at Baylor. There will be an organization fair at 6 p.m. and a program at 7 p.m.
“There are so many different black organizations at Baylor and it is important to see how they work together,” said San Antonio sophomore Deana Lee, a finance council member of Black Student Union. “They are all supportive of each other.”
For the remainder of Mosaic Week, students can attend Mosaic Asian Night on Monday, Aug. 28, LatinX Night on Tuesday, Aug. 29 and South Asian Night on Wednesday, Aug. 30. All events will be in the Barfield Drawing Room at 6:30 p.m.
“We would like to have our cultural events more well-known at Baylor,” said Garland senior Doc Nguyen, president of Baylor’s Asian Student Association. “In the past, our events were more for the Asians at Baylor, but this year we are going to work toward including everyone and having events that everyone can enjoy.”
