{"id":11,"date":"2017-08-30T10:05:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T14:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/?p=11"},"modified":"2017-05-07T23:18:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T03:18:41","slug":"department-picnic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/2017\/08\/30\/department-picnic\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Attend the English Department Picnic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The English department holds an annual picnic for English majors and faculty in Fall semester.\u00a0 Students and faculty meet and chat over food in a casual environment, temporarily relaxing together outside of the classroom.<\/p>\n

First-Year Experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n

First-year students have the opportunity to be paired with an upperclassman student in their concentration. A mentor will meet with their first-year student prior to the picnic and get to know them, then escort them to the Raffensperger Alumni House, where the picnic is held.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Lizzy Hendershot felt the mentoring experience was helpful to her as a first-year student. \u201cI think it was good because I got to sit down and talk to someone who had been through the process,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Food and Conversation<\/strong>\"dept.<\/h3>\n

The picnic is catered by Elizabethtown College\u2019s catering service. Those without meal plans are invited as guests of the department.\u00a0 Following dinner, there is an assortment of dessert options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe English Department picnic is a fantastic way for all of us to come together and interact with each other before the year gets too stressful,\u201d said senior Skye McDonald, who has attended the picnic for the last four years. \u201cThe professors in our department are really down-to-earth, and they treat us like equals when we\u2019re there. I like that I\u2019m able to sit down with them and eat a solid meal, not worrying about my grades in their classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annual Arrangements<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Professors are usually spread amongst tables, so each group of students is able to speak with them about a variety of topics like department opportunities, class materials, future career plans<\/a>, or the upcoming soccer game against Messiah College.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beneficial [for students] to attend the picnic,\u201d said Hendershot. \u201cI think it\u2019s nice because we get to know the professors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Alumni House has a patio area out back where the picnic is held.\u00a0 In past years, some of the more musical professors have played live music for students following dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hands-down my favorite part of the department,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cIf only I could attend next year after graduation!\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Samantha Kick is a senior English Professional Writing major with a theatre minor.\u00a0 She has previously written for the Etownian and E-town NOW. She has many notebooks from high school filled with written ramblings instead of notes, which may one day become novels. In the meantime, she writes a variety of things from research papers to grocery lists.\u00a0 Her plans for the future involve a pen, paper and the oxford comma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The English department holds an annual picnic for English majors and faculty in Fall semester.\u00a0 Students and faculty meet and chat over food in a casual environment, temporarily relaxing together outside of the classroom. First-Year Experience First-year students have the opportunity to be paired with an upperclassman student in their concentration. A mentor will meet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-picnic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}