Jamboree

• What was the general participation like? Did people interact much? What kinds of interactions did they have? Were those interactions mostly superficial, or have some thoughtful content?

Well, you were there. General participation was lame. People didn't interact much, unless it was someone they already knew. I have reason to believe that most of the conversation was about something other than their booths, FYS, or jamboree. I asked a couple of people what they had learned in their FYS, but I could have figured as much as I was told by the name of their class. When I was manning our booth, only a few people were still around. I didn't really want to start talking about our FYS because people mostly just wanted food and looked at our video. But a few people asked questions about it. I humored them, but I didn't really have much to say; For weeks we've just been working on our Jamboree booth, which didn't really display anything educational or related to human diversity. Before that we had "discussions" about books we read and the, like, two playlists we listened to. And what to say about the books we read a few chapters out of?

Them: "So, what did you do in your FYS?"

And so my response was more or less, "We listened to some playlists...? And read out of these books (pointed to the books on the table)."

• What did the whole set of booths say about human diversity (ostensibly the theme of FYS)?

Well. It's really quite beautiful. We all have different topics and put varying amounts of effort into it (how we are different), and were put into one building (what we have in common), much like people are different from each other, try hard or not hard at all at different things in their lives, yet we are all stuck on the same planet. The result: a meaningless waste of our time?

• What were some booths that you thought were particularly successful in raising important issues or conveying important ideas?

The one with the M&Ms. Yes, I am part of the problem.

• To what degree does Jamboree (in conjunction with the opening convocation and the common theme) succeed (or not) in generating some sort of "common experience" for first year students?

It was nice to have a small class in which discussion is possible. Too bad we didn't. Convocation was thought-provoking, I thought, and we talked about some interesting things, but we stopped too soon, and I couldn't get a word in, it seemed. Jamboree was not a very successful common experience. I suppose we can all talk about how it was pretty lame, though, I suppose. But how dismal! I swear I am not such a cynic. It's just blatant BS that gets to me.

• What were the strengths and weaknesses of Jamboree as social event? As a piece of academic programming?

Socially, I talked to people I already knew. So. It was okay? But I wouldn't call that a stregnth. Academically, I didn't learn anything. It was a distraction from class in which we could possibly have had more interesting discussions than our first few weeks. I felt more comfortable talking by the end, and can only assume that everyone else felt similarly, so discussions would have involved more people and we would have possibly been more willing to bring up more discussion-worthy topics.