Kayla Smith | Staff Writer
Photo Credit: Courtesy of SRT
Demogorgons, dodgeball and pies, oh my!
The Student Recruitment Team took Hampton students on an exciting adventure through the Upside Down as they kicked off their Stranger Things-themed SRT week.
From dodgeball to capture the flag, it was definitely a strange week on the campus of Hampton University. For those of you who don’t know, Stranger Things is a popular sci-fi Netflix series that has become favored among many viewers.
When asked what made SRT decide to make the theme Stranger Things, 2019-2020 SRT President Daizha Lankford, a graduating senior strategic communication major and leadership studies minor from Dallas, Texas, said that SRT “wanted a theme that we could execute well and have as much creativity and interaction as possible.”
The Student Center Atrium was decorated with detailed props that looked like they came directly from the Netflix show. SRT members made sure that they made their week one to remember and one in which every student could enjoy participating. The “strange” week started off with a competitive game of Demogorgon Ball in the Holland Gym. Here, students competed against members of the Student Recruitment Team in a game of dodgeball where friendly competition turned into a full-on battle for the title of champion in the different rounds.
SRT on Tuesday met students on the steps of Ogden Hall to initiate a playful campus manhunt accompanied by glow sticks and ominous music to help lead the way to “search for Greg” and hide from “demogorgons.” Various rounds gave participants multiple opportunities to put their survival skills to the test to keep from being found.
The team took to the Student Center on Wednesday for what they called “Social Hour at Starcourt,” which is based off the shopping mall from the show. While there, students got the opportunity to pie a Team Leader of their choice. Afterward was an interactive game of capture the flag.
To end its week, SRT welcomed the next class of Ogres for honors visitation weekend. They taught the incoming class all the chants and held activities to get them excited about joining our Hampton family next year.
“The hardest part [of planning the event] was turning basic materials into something that looked spectacular,” Lankford said. “It was also hard delegating such big visions and ideas and making the budget friendly, fit the theme and doable.”
In the end, through all this, Lankford said that the main goal was simply to “have fun.” SRT had a great turnout for each of their events, with many students showing up to each event and multiple social media posts encouraging their peers to come out and join in on the fun. From all this, it is safe to say that this year’s SRT week was a successful journey to the Upside Down.
The Hampton Script 