On Tuesday, Feb. 15, the Minority Mentorship Program hosted an event called “Single, Taken, or It’s Complicated?” at 6 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom. 

The event, which was the program’s first of the year, featured conversations about relationships as well as maneuvering through college. “The purpose of this event was to connect with people. The pandemic took away the privileges of social interactions,” Christian Goodwin, a Team Leader for Minority Mentorship Program, said.

The event consisted of men and women coming in and grabbing a sticker that indicates whether they are single, in a relationship or it’s complicated. They then sat at a table and answered questions.

“I, along with my co host, MaKayla Russell, called out a question that they had 3 minutes to answer,” Goodwin said.

To prepare for the event, Goodwin and Russell asked students about some of the questions they may be interested in being asked. The questions were mostly relationship based and had answers that related to individual preference such as, “How much money should you spend on a partner?” 

Kayla Scott, a mentor for the program and someone who attended the event, said her favorite part of the event was getting to know people. “Getting to see and have conversations with people who think differently than I was my favorite part. I was able to understand their logistics and even find minor errors in my own thought process. I could ask myself  ‘Why do I think this way?’ and then better communicate that pathway to others in the room,” Scott said.

Scott believed the event was helpful to students and herself. “I realized the event didn’t necessarily target individuals in a relationship, single or a complicated mix. It was an organized way to have an intellectual conversation with your peers,” Scott said.

The program was a success according to its organizers. “This was the first time for this event. I hope that I’ve inspired the future executive to keep this as an annual event. I’d say the scene was successful and organized. The turnout was decent,” Goodwin said.

The Minority Mentorship Program is an RSO that consists of minority students mentoring other minority students. Scott said,“I’m a member of the program because I wanted to help lead and assist minority students. I was once mentored myself in my freshman year and wanted to give back to the RSO that assisted me through my freshman year of college.”