CALS week to feature club competitions, new networking event
Students gather in front of Curtiss Hall on Oct. 4 for a free lunch provided by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council. The lunch was one of many events hosted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, 2018, for CALS Week.
September 30, 2018
New and returning events will be featured in Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ annual CALS Week.
Monday through Friday, CALS students will come together to celebrate the college with club competitions, free food and even a concert.
Jenna Rasmusson, CALS council publicity co-chairman and junior in agronomy, described CALS Week as a team effort.
“Planning starts as soon as school starts and there is an entire CALS Week committee dedicated to planning CALS Week within CALS council … it is honestly a full team effort,” Rasmusson said.
Some changes are coming this year, such as a difference in name from the CALS Olympics to the CALS Club Competition. Clubs in the college of agriculture will go head-to-head at games, competing for a trophy to take home. This event will take place on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Kildee Pavilion.
“This year we made a traveling trophy and whoever wins gets to keep it for the entire year until the next CALS Club Competition,” said Elizabeth Smith, co-chairman of the CALS Week committee.
“Each club gets their name engraved on the trophy each year they win,” Rasmusson said.
The engraving is something Rasmusson said she hopes will start a new tradition within CALS.
Another new event is the Ag Entrepreneurship Initiative Round Table that will take place on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in the Harl Commons.
During the event, a panel of entrepreneurs in the agriculture industry come and talk about their businesses.
“This gives students that are interested in starting their own business the opportunity to talk to them,” Smith said.
During CALS Week, lunch is provided Monday through Thursday to students on central campus from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as breakfast on Friday from 8 to 10 a.m. The food available ranges from pizza to burgers to brats.
“The point is to celebrate our whole college and get everyone together, so I think that will be really rewarding to see the whole council’s efforts pay off,” Rasmusson said.
Smith said she would like to see students interacting with sponsors.
“Sponsors have the opportunity to come and you hope that kids stop and talk to the sponsors, but you never really know,” Smith said.
