NW Campus dived into the fall semester with a tie-dye and pool party.
Students and staff gathered on Aug. 21 in the 100-degree-plus heat to tie-dye patterns on TCC shirts, munch on free Popsicles and swim at the kinesiology pool.
For Eden Sotelo and Elizabeth Vazquez, this was the moment they’d been waiting for — to check out the pool. Both NW students have been attending TCC for several semesters, but they said this was the first event they went to.
“It’s really good to go ahead and get out and do stuff while in college, and I just thought that this was the perfect opportunity,” Sotelo said while she tie-dyed a pink heart on her shirt.
In the past, student activities organizers had only thrown pool parties during the summer, but this semester, they decided to switch things up to boost student engagement and connect with new students.
“For some students, this is their first opportunity to visit campus, and we want it to be a welcoming experience,” NW student activities supervisor Alicia Coleman said. “For students coming back after summer, some of them might be, you know, not looking forward to school as much and we’re just hoping that everyone comes in and feels welcomed and cared for.”
The tie-dye booth, set up behind the pool building and towards the center of NW, offered an assortment of colors and patterns to choose from.
Around 60 students attended the tie-dye, Coleman said, with only a fraction deciding to swim as well.
Despite the free access to students, the NW pool doesn’t generally get much traffic aside from regulars and community partnerships. Sigma Swim, a Fort Worth swimming school, and Eagle Mountain High School often use the pool, not many TCC students do, several staff members said.
These events not only give students a chance to connect and have fun but also inform them that there are resources available.
“We’re constantly finding people who didn’t even know that the gym exists on campus,” STEM and health sciences administrative support specialist John Asbill said. “Students, faculty, staff, (they’re) not aware that we have a pool that they can come and use during open swim hours.”
Open swim hours this fall are 8 to 9 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays, and 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The facility offers an assortment of tools for swimmers, such as life vests, floaties and even underwater dumbbells.
For the party, the kinesiology department provided little flamingo floaties and various swimming supplies like goggles and inflatable donuts. The students who swam splashed around, did laps and some even attempted to synchronize their diving for a race.
“I think that events like this definitely help campus culture, because I feel like the idea of community college is ‘Get your stuff done. Get in, get out,’ and I think by doing stuff like this, it shows that community college is just as important as four-year universities,” Sotelo said.
