On Tuesday, Nov 18, Farris Hall hosted “The Great Farris Bake Off,” where the Honors College Peer Coaches helped students prepare accessible and easy to make at home snacks.
“‘The Great Farris Bake Off’ is a fairly misleading name,” Jay Edwards, a junior theater major and Farris Hall peer coach who hosted the event, said. “We went more for the pun than for clarity. So we were making apple crisps, which are kind of like apple filling with like graham crackers and oats and cinnamon and brown sugar and stuff, and throwing some ice cream on top of that.”
Edwards said the event was meant to serve as a break from the stress brought upon by the end of the semester.
“Well, after putting in the microwave for a nice little treat, hopefully, as classes are ramping up exams, [this event is] a nice little break from stress,” Edwards said. “To be honest, they’re rather simple to make and they’re yummy, and I can very easily mass produce them, and I am. It’s also very busy like the peer coaches and so it was not hard to throw together.”
Edwards and fellow peer coach and junior psychology major Koré Ziegler helped prepare and serve several servings for all students who were present.
“We’re doing kind of like a de-stressing event, because finals are around, you know, the end of semester, very crazy, very hectic, very stressful,” Ziegler said. “So we’re just doing a community outreach type event where we are making yummy treats for people to just enjoy, and we’re just hanging out together and just having a good time.”
Peer coaches host several events throughout the semester, a lot of which have been focused on engaging students with one another.
“We really focus on helping students,” Ziegler said. “Really we’re for all students, but we also focus really on first year students, students who are struggling mentally, academically and anything they might be going through. We want to provide a good support system for them, because we’re all students here. We’ve been through what they’re going through, so we just want to offer extra help; extra support, to these students.”
Freshman biochemistry major Troy Riggs said, “This is my third Farris event. It’s a good way for all the freshmen to connect with each other, get us involved with upperclassmen too.”
Honors peer coaches are expected to do a lot more than just host events.
Bryson Self, a junior chemistry major and another honors college peer coach at the event said, “We are a program that’s here to supplement any of the needs of all honor students for holistic wellness, so anything from academics to personal issues, we help cover.
Ziegler said, “I love being a peer coach, and it’s really fun. Anybody should consider it. It’s really good for building community. I’ve made a lot of friends doing it, and it’s also just nice to know that the honors college and UCA in general, like, really cares about the students, and so these events are catered towards them. And we care about them, we care about you, and we want you to feel safe, secure and awesome at UCA.”
