March Sadness Dance hosted by College of Engineering ends March on Happy note
On March 29, students gathered at the Nelson Fieldhouse for the March Sadness Dance hosted by the College of Engineering. Attendees enjoyed a DJ set, beverages and an opportunity to connect with peers.
Andrew Hendricks, a senior studying electrical engineering, was in charge of planning, organizing and managing the event.
“There used to be the engineering-education dance, so we brought the colleges together because we thought that would be a fun thing to do,” Hendricks said.
According to Hendricks, the dance was relatively easy to pull together.
“All we have to do is have a place, and advertising and the rest just kind of falls into place,” Hendricks said.
Josh Jeppson, a Ph.D. student in computer engineering, was the DJ for the dance and played some of his own mixes for the dance.
Hendricks is a member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is on the event committee.
“We do pretty much anything we can to help the college,” Hendricks said. “We have the SPAC conference every year with speakers and a bunch of workshops. We have about two socials each year.”
Hendricks credits the community of people he has found within IEEE as motivation to propel him through his career.
“All the wonderful people I’ve met over the years in IEEE help me be motivated by engineering, excited about engineering and just have been inspiring people to be with in general,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks said there are many clubs under the IEEE that serve students.
“We have a bunch of different individual sub-clubs beneath the main club that can help students with different interests,” Hendricks said. “USU Robotics is a very well-developed sub-club that’s now split into two groups and is really popular. We’ve also got a Rubens tube team, which is essentially just a propane tube with a bunch of holes at the top that we can then put sound waves into to make dance.”
Hendricks gives credit for the name of the dance to Jarett Parry.
“My friend and I were tabling for an SPAC conference last week, and we needed names for the dance, and he came up with March Sadness because he’s a pretty funny guy.” Hendricks said.
Jarett Perry is a sophomore studying electrical engineering. He serves on the IEEE event committee.
Addie Kelly is a nutrition science major.
“I’m just simply here to support and so we’re hoping to turn up,” Kelly said.
Caleb Black helped plan the event.
“I thought the dance was a really great time,” Black said. “It was a perfect release and a chance to be with my friends and see them in a different light. Oftentimes technical majors are stressful, so to be able to relax and dance and give a space for all of us to be ourselves was so rewarding. I got to see my friends in a totally different light.”
According to Hendricks, the dance was a success.
“The dance was fun,” Hendricks said. “I think people enjoyed themselves. We met some people, had some glow sticks and just had a lot of fun.”