Resident Life: lava lamps, trucker hats and sand art give residents colorful opportunities

[tps_header] As students begin to feel the pressure from midterm papers and exams, some students have felt run down and ragged. In the Residence Hall, students were able to have a literal glow-up by participating in the “do-it-yourself” lava lamp, “make-your-own” trucker hats and sand art events.

Resident assistant Rhett Sandquist hosted a DIY lava lamp event on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Residence Hall theater room. Later on in the week on Thursday at the same time and place, residence life manager Paula Czirr hosted an event where students could customize pre-bought trucker hats. The following Monday, resident assistant Josh Heuvel hosted a sand pouring event. 

When residents entered the room for the lava lamp event, they were greeted by a large table with water bottles, water, vegetable oil, food coloring and Alka Seltzer. By combining the food coloring with water, pouring vegetable oil into the bottles and then dropping a broken Alka Seltzer tablet inside, students could create a makeshift lava lamp themselves. 

“I thought it would be fun to show others how to make them because I appreciate childish things like this,” Sandquist said.

Hannah Warwick, another Resident Assistant who attended the program, said residents could find real appeal in keeping them as decorations. 

“I didn’t like this at first,” Daniela Quintero-Reyes said, “but then I made another after practicing on my first bottle. It turned out way better on than my first one.”

“It was a learning experience for sure,” Ashley Cyr said. 

For the trucker hat event, Czirr had set up various fabric markers, fabric paint, sharpies and spray paint on a table for residents to decorate their trucker hats. The trucker hats were provided by the Residence Hall and came with white, blue and pink rims. 

“We’ve done this several times in the past few years and everyone loves to be creative with their hats,” Czirr said. “The students can have a different creative outlet to not only decorate something but wear it too.”

“This event has been my favorite so far,” Taylor Riley said. “I am now changing my career path to making trucker hats as a side hustle!”

On Monday, Heuvel placed tarps under tables lined with jars filled with colored sand ranging from light blue to neon green. The hall provided jars for the residents to pour their sand so they could create layers of patterned sand. 

“It just let me feel like I was a kid again,” said Taryn Vanderwiel, a first-year resident in the hall. “And now it’s a great decoration for my room’s aesthetic.”

Next week the Residence Hall will host “where you’re from” string art on Wednesday. [/tps_header]

Wiley Dowler, a first-year environmental science major living in the dorms, looks at his green lava lamp after dropping an Alka Seltzer tablet in his bottle. “I was astronomically stressed out about some of my classes, so getting out and just taking a small break from it all was very nice,” Dowler said. Daniela Quintero-Reyes and Ashley Cyr prepare to drop tablets into their lava lamp bottles. Both are first-year students living within the Residence Hall. Taylor Riley uses different colored spray paints to create a gradient effect on her trucker hat. Masking tape was provided to make sure that residents wouldn’t spray paint on unwanted areas of their hats. Residents use paper funnels to pour in different colored sand into their jars. One resident said that she aimed for her jar to look like a Truffula tree from the Dr. Seuss book and movie, “The Lorax.” Dolly Kiesz, a second-year resident studying nursing at NIC, eyes her creation to make sure the sand levels are even between the different colors. “This is one of the best events ever,” Kiesz said.