Thanksgiving is an annual tradition in the United States that has been proclaimed by every president since 1863. Historically, it has been an event to celebrate the harvest and other blessings of the year passed. However, as the country was industrialized and family members increasingly lived further from one another, Thanksgiving Day has been an occasion to gather around and enjoy a good family dinner.
Nowadays, college students in the U.S. tend to live in on-campus residences and away from their hometown and families. There will be many plane and bus tickets booked in the next few days as many students will make trips back home for the holiday. What does this mean for life on campus during that time? Well for one, many universities will close their doors to students for a couple of days to allow for the migration. Some universities have even chosen to completely shut down for the whole week! This is good news for a large number of students. However, many students are either from distant countries or states or don't have the financial means to absorb that kind of expense unfortunately. These college students definitely need to be considered as well since some universities like the New School (NY) and Illinois Institute of Technology have north of 20% of their student body that consisting of international students! What are some things you can organize to make Thanksgiving as enjoyable for them as possible?
1- Dinner With Dormmates
Students who have on-campus residences will most likely spend most of their time in their residence halls during the Thanksgiving break! This is a good opportunity to gather all remaining students for a nice evening dinner in the student centre!
2- Bring Your Own Dish
Chances are many students staying on campus will be international students. You can host the most epic potluck and have students bring one typical dish of their country or state of origin. You are probably used to the famous stuffed turkey dinner and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving but switching it up this year will spice things up a bit!
3- Host-A-Friend
You can launch a host-a-friend program on campus! This would have local students and their families hosting an international student or two in their homes to show them a real American Thanksgiving feast.
4- "What Are You Thankful For" Game
One activity you can throw on campus is called "What Are You Thankful For"! You gather all of the students in a room. Pick different themes beforehand like "school", "family", "relationships", "friendships", etc. When done, one after the other, each student completes the following sentence: "In terms of [theme] this year, I'm most thankful for ...". This activity is a good icebreaker activity for students who have yet to meet!
5- Board Games
Board games are awesome games to play to give your event a good family vibe - it's Thanksgiving after all! You can start this game right after dinner. Have students playing games like Monopoly, Jenga, Scrabble, etc.
The Thanksgiving holiday is a great one to take some time off of your busy schedule of work, school, extracurricular activities and spend some time with family. We tend to simply think of family as parents, siblings and cousins but "family" also includes the people you see every day on campus and in residence hallways! Fellow college students are part of the big family and everyone should be thankful to be a part of something this special in college! Happy Thanksgiving!
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