Participants in four houses are taking a photo with the backgrounds which identify their houses (Harry Potter theme) during the event, 'Sorting Social.'
Photo by Student Council.
On September 3, the freshmen event called “Sorting Social” was organized by the Student Council of George Mason University Korea (GMUK), collaborating with RAs. The event was open for continuing students of GMUK as well as first-year students. Due to the COVID-19 social distancing measures, students, especially those new to the school, could not make new friends or socialize as most classes have been conducted online rather than face-to-face. Hence, the freshmen event aimed to allow students to get to know each other deeper and socialize in the midst of COVID-19. The event, “Sorting Social,” was considered a success, as students, who participated, were able to be connected to each other in the circumstance that people could not interact in person.
The vice president of the Student Council, Hayun Kim, stated that the theme of the event was motivated by Harry Potter. Therefore, students were divided into four groups, as there are four houses: Gryffindor (Red), Slytherin (Green), Ravenclaw (Blue), and Hufflepuff (Yellow) in Harry Potter. In order to efficiently divide students into four groups, the Student Council referred to students’ personality types called MBTI, which were collected during the event registration.
Throughout the event, students could play activities such as image games and liar games in the break-out rooms, after being sorted by each house of Harry Potter. Students were able to get to know each other better and socialize by having conversations all together for games. In addition, there was an exciting competition between the four houses when they played quizzes regarding Harry Potter and GMUK in ‘Kahoot.’ Those enjoyable activities in the event offered a more significant opportunity to get rid of the awkwardness and get closer by communicating with other students. Even after the event session was over, students remained to have time to talk freely and exchanged their SNS IDs for being friends beyond the limitations of the online format.
The house, Hufflepuff, was the winner of the Kahoot game, which was the quiz about Harry Potter and GMUK.
The Voice interviewed several students who participated in the freshmen event, and it was able to gather interesting opinions from them. According to one of the students, Soomin Lee (Management, B.S., GMUK, ‘25), though she was nervous as she is a shy person, she truly enjoyed the session and was glad to make new friends in the COVID-19 circumstance. Furthermore, she mentioned that she would like to continue the relationship with people who shared the SNS IDs.
The event with the interesting theme, “Sorting Social,” came to a successful close. The atmosphere of the event showed a contrast between the beginning and the end. It portrays that most students were getting used to the flow of the event, especially to having conversations with others online. Thus, it is considered an excellent opportunity for the Mason Korea students to get along and communicate even during the social distancing phase. Thanks to the event, students could socialize with each other and build relationships further through this event. Hopefully, the COVID-19 will be relieved as soon as possible, and Mason Korea students, as well as people worldwide, will be able to interact with others in person freely.
Written by Jiwoo Kim, staff writer
Revised by Yu Bin Kwon | Managing Editor
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