By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays Student Engagement hosted Back-To-School Picnic Pt. 2 inside the Memorial Union on Wednesday to welcome new and returning students to the Spring 2025 semester. On-campus organizations and representatives from employers around Hays offered engagement and guidance to students looking for activities while navigating their academics.
Nickolas Backman operated a booth for Student Engagement, who aimed to make coming back to campus enjoyable.
“We’re reintroducing students to events that go on at Fort Hays,” he said. “We let them know that there is a schedule they can see and remind them that just because the ‘relax time’ is over doesn’t mean the fun is over.”
The Back-To-School Picnic Pt. 2 takes place inside the Black and Gold Room of Memorial Union. 
Various organizations on campus, like Student Engagement, made their presence available at the picnic to give students options for activity. 
Sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha mans a table to find new members. 
Fort Hays Health and Wellness Services offers therapeutic assistance for returning and new students. “There’s a variety of needs that we address with students,” Therapist Jennifer Pfeifer said. “Maybe they didn’t have a good fall semester and want to get back on track, Generally, we like to see students within the week of when they call for an appointment, and that’s manageable with out office. We see a wide range of students, student issues, and thing they want help dealing with.” 
Azlyn Grasser, marketing association at Golden Belt Bank, gives financial advice to students and explains how the bank handles their clients finances. 
The Massage Therapy program gives massages to students. 
HaysMed mans a table to promote themselves and offer part-time and full-time positions. 
The Fort Hays Honor Society adds a creative flavor to their table through a glittery sign with thought bubbles of their activities and requirements to join. 
Face Factory Barber & Beauty Lounge jokes around at the picnic. 
Leo Vasquez, Jr. gives Manny Peralta a haircut.
Alpha Sigma Alpha promoted its sorority to attendees to find new members and bring its name to campus in time for the new semester.
“We’re all pretty excited to be back and see each other,” ASA Financial Director Tatom Smith said. “We’re going to try and strive to get more recruits and do more recruiting events.”
Clubs at Fort Hays were also featured at the picnic to encourage students to learn more about fields outside of their studies.
Sociology Club President Brenna Schwien used her booth to expand the size of her group’s membership.
“We started it back up last semester,” she said. “Since our major is a little bit smaller with students on our campus here, we’re hoping to expand more into other degree programs that are in our College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences as well as our sociology students here.”
Schwien became president of the club for that effort.
“My goal, when I stepped in, was to grow our organization,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed studying sociology, and so being around a lot of the other students who like to study the same things as me has been great.”
Assistant Professor and Sponsor of the Sociology Club Nicole English believes there is a link between dancing and sociology.
“I did my PhD on Sociology of dance while looking at dance as a social and cultural practice,” she said. “It brings people together, creates community, and reinforces culture and cultural roles. It allows people to learn from each other, and it’s passed down from generation to generation. So, what we’re actually doing is learning life skills as we’re learning to dance. That’s my bottom line. You learn community, and you learn life skills through dance.”
She notes that this lesson boosts people’s mental health through community-building.
“Everything we do in life involves interacting with other people,” English said. “Things we learn in Sociology are human behavior and interaction, human behavior in groups, and interacting with other humans. That’s a skill that is very useful going forward into the future because no matter what careers we choose, we have to interact with other people in order to be successful and happy.”
Companies across the Hays area visited with students, including Golden Belt Bank, HaysMed, Fade Factory Barber & Beauty Lounge, and the Kansas Army National Guard.
Azlyn Grasser, a marketing associate at Golden Belt Bank, represented the bank for the third time at Fort Hays to show students employment and financial security opportunities.
“We get a lot of interesting things from students,” she said. “They give us questions about advice and money. We’ve had a couple of people inquire about job opportunities or our summer internship. We’ve found hot and cold, but it always proves we’re a hit.”
Many students seek financial advice from Golden Belt Bank at the picnic as they enter the early stages of adulthood.
“I’ve found from being here that we have to incentivize them to ask us questions,” Grasser said. “For young people, they just don’t know, so they’re afraid to ask. Ever since we switched how we target students, we’re starting to get a lot more [of them]. Even today, we’ve had anywhere from 50 people come through the line 30 minutes in, and we’ve had some good questions.”
Grasser’s goal with Golden Belt Bank is to assure students their money can be secured by building their trust in the bank.
“It’s all about getting them comfortable with asking questions,” she said. “Finance is scary to a lot of people who don’t know about it yet, and financial education is a big focus for us this year.”