Outdoor Court Gets A Makeover

The outdoor basketball court east of Suffolk Hall was met with about 40 freshmen faces that wanted to paint the court’s brick wall green on Wednesday, Oct.29. At around 3:30 p.m., freshmen from two College 101 classes descended upon the outdoor basketball court. They started
to sweep away leaves, and then placed down tarps to paint the brick wall that runs along one side of the court.

Abby Van Vlerah, the Dean of Students, and her College 101 class were responsible for the idea. “My College 101 course chose the project,” Van Vlerah said. She also explained that the project is part of the service- learning component to the class, and that all College 101 courses are required to participate in service-learning projects. “Service-learning is an opportunity for students to experience a community-based project connected to the learning objectives of the class.”

“The basketball service-learning project was about making our campus look a little more beautiful, and we teamed up with another [College 101] class to make it possible,” said Julio Feliciano, a freshman Music Education major. “The students in the class are responsible for this project. Each class had their own idea of how they want[ed] to spend their community service time, but our professors and assistant teachers [combined] the ideas of both classes. Everyone contributed to the whole project. I feel like I accomplished our goal of getting the wall painted in under an hour which is pretty impressive to me.”

Victoria Zaccone, a senior Nutrition major and Chemistry minor, is a peer mentor for the College 101 class. “A peer mentor is someone who helps others in the class,” Zaccone explained. Zaccone mentioned that the brick wall around the outdoor court will get a Post “P” painted on it in the future by her class, but could not specify a date.