First School Psychology Program “Olympics” a Big Success
Graduate students in the school psychology program recently brought together about 40 current students, alumni, faculty, and significant others for a day of friendly and fairly unusual competition.
Team Y-CAT’s musical version of "It's a School Psych Life"
Beginning with opening ceremonies, (complete with a presentation of the Olympic Torch...well, flashlight...and a live performance of the National Anthem on recorder,) four teams competed in events like Human Block Design, So You Think You Can Dance and Scavenger Hunt. Noodle Whackers found blind-folded contestants trying to avoid having the egg tied on their heads broken by other blind-folded contestants flailing about with large swimming pool noodles. The Leaning Tower of Cheeza relay involved trying to build the highest cheese and cracker tower within two minutes. And then there was the pie eating contest that is better left without a description.
The event was organized by Jamie Caruso, who is completing her internship experience this year, and Kristi Pizzini, spouse of second-year doctoral student, Eric Pizzini.
Team Thriller went all out with the zombie theme.
"Participating in the Olympics was a great way to get to know classmates, professors, and supervisors on a personal level and really helped to build a sense of community within the program," said Caruso, who was a member of the "Thriller" team. "How many students can say that they have had the chance to get away with hitting their professor with a pool noodle?"
Each team created its own custom designed t-shirts, banner, cheer, and secret methods for bribing the judges. The event allowed new students to get to know more advanced students and generally created a sense of camaraderie among all who attended.
"Our program is academically rigorous and demanding, but it is important to faculty that students support each other," said Kathleen Minke, Acting Director of the School of Education and program faculty member. "These kinds of events contribute to the development of good relationships among students, faculty, and alumni. And it is especially meaningful to us that the events are created by the students themselves."
Psychobabbles took home the coveted gold medals.
The Olympics marks the latest in a series of student-developed events that have included: end-of-semester celebrations, a day of service and a school psychology "prom."
Messy fun with Noodle Whackers.
No one knows for sure why Dr. Bear
led the Tigers.
