College Community Bonds Through Social Paint Nite

Residence Life held a “Social Paint Nite” on Friday, March 24 in Jensen Dining Hall. The event was a connecting experience between people through conversations while developing attendees’ painting skills.

The event had a turn out with over 70 attendees, including 50 students/alumni and over 10 Wilson College faculty and  staff members. With the intention of having at least one staff member per table of four, attendees got the chance to interact and learn about one another’s backgrounds. The outcome created a bonding experience within the Wilson community to better understand its members through an enjoyable activity.
One activity was paint the image of a dream catcher. Attendees had the option to follow the original painting with directions from Career Development Director Linda Boeckman. However, participants also had the choice to paint a dream catcher using their own design.

Social Paint Nite brought forth many benefits to its attendees. Painting is not just an artistic endeavor, but has many health benefits. According to the Health Fitness Revolution website, painting helps improve health in up to 10 ways, which includes broadening concentration, sharpening fine motor skills, promoting knowledge of various cultures, boosting creativity, and building critical thinking skills.

Resident Assistant (RA) Kerri Bennett ’17, coordinator of the event, showed her excitement, stating, “It was a fantastic turn out! We had more people email but we had reached our max and had to turn people down.”

Bennett continued, “The main goal was definitely achieved. The idea was to have a group of professionals from within the outside community sit and paint with students and be able to talk about careers and networking in a non-stressful environment and just let the conversation go in whatever direction it does.”

Having directed many previous paint nights, Boeckman established that the Social Paint Nite was a whole other experience.

“It was huge! Very large! This is more than just a paint night,” Boeckman stated. “Having the professionals in attendance added a lot of conversation and made the room very lively. Paint nights are often quiet, but  not this time!”

Boeckman also believes that some of the students created good future connections for their careers.

There is a high possibility of another Social Paint Nite in the future as Bennett said, “This is something that should happen more, because not a lot of students feel comfortable having one on one conversations with adults. Making talks happen in small groups while doing something fun makes it a little easier!”

For more information or to see more photos of the event, visit the Residence Life Facebook page at  www.facebook.com/WCResidenceLife.