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UNK hosted its annual Blue and Gold Welcome Showcase for this year’s incoming class. Students were met with both new and traditional activities this year to welcome them into the Loper lifestyle.

“I love it when the students start arriving on that Friday for convocation,” said Renae Zimmer, Director of Student Engagement. “It’s really about the only time those first-year students are all together until they graduate. It’s great to have the campus leaders talk to them. It’s like a big pep rally. We design it to be upbeat and fun.”

Preparations for the Blue Gold Welcome Showcase and Destination Downtown begin as early as February. The offices of student engagement and student and family transitions work throughout the summer to get facilities in place, reserve spaces, obtain food providers, line up vendors and hire bands. Through their efforts in partnering with people and organizations, every student can look forward to starting off the school year with a wide array of entertainment tailored for them.

First-year assistant Director of Student and Family Transitions, Kelly Tuttle Krahling, experienced this event for the first time.

 “I was really excited to see how engaged the students were and how excited the faculty and staff community were to welcome the students on campus,” Krahling said. “All the students seemed to come just excited to jump right in and that was really great to see.” 

Graduate Assistant Sarah Godejohn recently graduated from UNK herself this Spring.

“Playfair was a really fun event for students to go and have some fun and meet other people,” Godejohn said. “I like to think that the entire weekend as a whole sticks out. I’m hoping that a lot of students walked away from the weekend and felt that wow UNK is very welcoming and there are a lot of resources and events that UNK has to offer me.”