Fun After Sundown: Board Games and Popcorn

As the end of the semester draws closer with the end of spring break, anxiety and stress levels are at an all-time high for many students on campus. However, if you happen to be looking for something to alleviate such a burden, the Student Activities Board may be able to help. They will be hosting a “Board Games and Popcorn” night.

There are no hidden meanings here, as the event will be just as it sounds. Students will have a chance to enjoy playing a wide variety of board and card games while feasting on popcorn Wednesday, March 27, from 8-9 p.m. at Village Hall 118.

What SAB intends for the event is to have it provide an opportunity for students to temporarily relieve any anxiety that they might feel due to the expectations placed on them from work or school life — and many other factors. This is the general purpose that all of their events serve, and the same can be said for the organization as a whole.

“SAB is all about helping students get away from the stress of school life, so we always try to encourage people to have fun on campus and meet other people in a stress-free environment,” said SAB Vice President Florence Zhang. 

Zhang explained that although all members of SAB actively collaborate to think of ideas for events, the idea for Board Games and Popcorn night mainly came from active member Bryn Riley. 

“She’s always very creative when it comes to that. She got the idea from when we went to the NACA conference, which is just basically a convention where college campuses share ideas, and she saw that one college came up with Board Games and Popcorn and decided to use it at Pitt,” she said.

SAB staff adviser, Jordan Salomone, explains that “Board Games and Popcorn” is largely meant to act as a platform for students to properly introduce themselves to each other and to get to know other people that they ordinarily would not meet. 

“Board game night was one of the first programs we did during Welcome Week over the summer, just to get students to socialize with others — and that went really well. We thought it would be nice to do something like that again to get students more involved and interested in SAB as a more low-key program to get them out and about,” Salomone said. 

Salomone hopes to make a brief introduction to the fundamentals of SAB at the end of Wednesday’s event to encourage attending students to join the club if they feel interested. 

If you are interested in joining SAB, you can contact Jordan through email at jas1072@pitt.edu. If you have any questions for Florence, she can be found at flz6@pitt.edu. Javon Brown is the president of SAB and you can find him at jtb166@pitt.edu if you want to talk to him.