Top 10 Showcase: The University of Michigan Steps It Up
We’ve asked the campus leaders from the Top 10 schools to write up some behind-the-scenes info about their projects. You can vote for your favorite project here. -Emily Stivers
The good news is that the weather in Ann Arbor has been warm and sunny for the last three weeks, which is unheard of. The bad news is that on Wednesday, March 25th, the day of our big outdoor Diag Day, it was 40 degrees and pouring rain. We had big plans for the day: chalking up all of the sidewalks, a water balloon toss, a 4-square competition and an unfathomable amount of decorations. Sadly, when we woke up at 5:00am to start setting up, just about all of those plans fell through.
If I were to pick ONE part of our project to be most proud of, it would be our ability to improvise and think on our feet (no pun intended, ONE STEP at a time, get it?). Everyone always says having a backup plan will keep you safe, but in our case, even those fell through. We were miraculously still able to get a few banners to stay up, brought in a tent at the last minute, and pumped ourselves up for a lot of screaming, dancing and campaigning!
To our surprise, the student response on the Diag – U-M’s high-traffic center of campus – was amazing! Hundreds signed the ONE Declaration and we collected 446 letters to our Senators asking them to support the Global Food Security Act. It would have been so easy for students to walk through buildings to get to class instead of passing through the Diag. But, through word of mouth, they heard that something big was happening. I attribute this buzz to our energy, our spirit, and our ability to think outside the box. Creativity was key for us – rolling out bubble wrap to stomp on, dressing up a ONE member in a huge heart costume, painting our faces in ONE logos and a whole lot of yelling made this event a success.
Who knows how much bigger our impact could have been had everything gone our way… but what fun would that have been?
GO BLUE!
-Stephanie Parrish, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
TAGS: Top 10, Uncategorized