Family Weekend 2014: Celebrating the Rowan family

Julie Peterson doesn’t just feel love for Rowan University. She exudes it. And she wants every family member of a Rowan student to exude it, too.

“We want to connect with families so that they feel the same love for Rowan University that their students feel…and that we feel,” says Peterson, Rowan’s director of student enrichment and family connections, who has dedicated 37 years to serving Rowan students and their families.

Family Weekend gives family members of students an up-close-and-personal look at their student’s Rowan experience, while also introducing families to the campus, its culture, its traditions, its vibe…and its personalities.

Careers, tours, arts, athletics

Attend Family Weekend and you’ll hear how Rowan alumni landed their dream jobs in a session presented by the Career Management Center.

You’ll have tours of the campus, historic Hollybush and 89.7 WGLS-FM, the University’s award-winning, 24/7 student-led radio station.

You’ll visit the Rowan University Art Gallery. You’ll enjoy a dance performance presented by the College of Performing Arts.

You’ll attend shows in the Frederic and Jean Edelman Planetarium and learn about the magic of science from Physics & Astronomy Professor Tabbetha Dobbins, who coordinates biophysics.

You’ll have the chance to cheer Profs athletes in ice hockey, field hockey and women’s soccer.  

You’ll learn how to decorate cakes, make sushi or create mouth-watering pizza, courtesy of Gourmet Dining, the University’s new food service vendor.

You’ll experience bingo night and trivia night at Rowan After Hours, the wildly popular programming offered by Rowan’s Office of Student Activities three nights every week. You’ll cap your RAH experience off with midnight fruit parfait and soup bars.

‘Plain old fun..Rowan-style’

Finally, you’ll attend a blockbuster Family Block Party on Saturday, Sept. 27 (11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.), that will offer “good food, music, family activities and just plain old fun…Rowan-style,” Peterson says. Tickets for the Block Party are $16 for adults, $11 for children under 12.

Are you a champion corn shucker or pie eater? Vie for awards in the Block Party’s “Fastest-corn-shucker-this-side-of-322 Contest” or the “Fastest-pie-eater-this-side-of-55 Contest.”

Burger Throwdown

Are you a burger aficionado? Judge whose burger is the best, among four Rowan chefs, during the Gourmet Dining Burger Throwdown Contest.

Clad in monogrammed chef’s jackets, Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Richard Jones, Assistant Director of Student Activities Constantine Alexakos, Vice President for Academic Affairs Roberta Harvey and Student Government Association President Joe Chen, a senior history and human resource management major, all will serve up their best burger fare----and vie for campus-wide bragging rights--in the throwdown.

Along the way, there will be some good-natured ribbing, at least from Jones, who already has begun the throwdown trash talking.

“My secret ingredients will make the beef beefier,” boasts the ever-confident Jones. “It will be unbelievably delicious. Everyone else will be flipping for second place.”

The Block Party also will include family fun, such as balloon animals, a caricature artist, crafts, face painting, a moon bounce, stilt walkers and a disc jockey.

We are fam-i-lee

Studies show that providing engaging programming for college students has a significant impact on student success, Jones says. During Family Weekend, Rowan parents and family members get a true taste of life at the University…and become proud members of the Rowan family, he notes.

“We talk a lot about the intentionality of our programming,” Jones says. “Research supports that there’s learning going on when students are having fun. We talk about that a lot at Orientation, which is the first time parents see that we truly are a Rowan family.”

Family Weekend is hosted and sponsored by nearly 25 Rowan departments, offices and programs.