Best of Florida Schools 2005
General Categories—Page 5

Best Non-Traditional Dance Squad
Thunder Rumbles EWC
In October 2002, students at Edward Waters College experienced a never-before-seen phenomenon. It started as a faint rumble and grew to a deafening roar that could be heard for miles. The spectacle was so mesmerizing that onlookers became entranced. No, there wasn’t anything supernatural about the event that took place on the football field that day. It was the halftime premier of Purple Thunder, the school’s first dance squad for women sizes 16 and above. “The name Purple Thunder is associated with the noise that we bring when we hit the field,” says Kathy Williams, creator of the dance troupe. “It’s associated with the crowd and their response to us when we come out.”

The birth of this show-stopping group happened more by chance than anything else. While attending a practice of Purple Passion, EWC’s regular dance squad, Williams teased that a plus-sized group could do the same routine—but better. Just a week before the homecoming game, Purple Passion’s choreographer asked Williams if her squad would be ready to perform. “I knew it’d be a great opportunity to showcase hidden talents,” she says. “I’m full-figured myself, and I love to dance. I wanted to show that larger-sized women can do the same dance moves as smaller women.”

Recruiting other women with the same interests was no problem for Williams—the majority of the squad’s members came from the school choir, which she calls her “sisterhood.” The 10 women practiced rigorously all week and hit the field during halftime to the beat of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” “The crowd went crazy,” she says. “I think they really liked seeing something new.”

Since their debut, Purple Thunder members have strutted their stuff to songs like “My Boo,” “Crazy in Love,” and “Back that Thing Up” for audiences across the Southeast. To mix things up and represent their heritage, the women also dance to contemporary African melodies. “The women in this squad have honor, integrity, and academic standing,” Williams says. “This is something for our school—we want to showcase EWC.”

Despite all the accolades from onlookers and interest from wannabe members, Williams still isn’t satisfied. She wants to take Purple Thunder above and beyond a dance squad by turning into an official campus organization—one that will last for years to come. “I want to branch out into the community and work off campus, too,” she says. “We want to serve as a light for others to look up to.”—CG

Contact Williams at klwilliam2@ewc.edu.

Best Student Organization
Follow the FIU LEADers
Imagine sitting amid a group of friends in a room full of people, waiting for a workshop called “Dealing with Change” to begin. When the facilitator comes to the front of the room, he starts asking a few people to move and sit in a different place. You smirk, wondering what he could be up to, when suddenly you’re being told to move, too. As you sit down, you realize you don’t know anyone around you. Beginning to feel uneasy, you slouch down in your chair and pray the workshop will be over soon. “This is stupid,” you think to yourself about dealing with this unwanted change…wait…unwanted change…ooh.

This is just one of the many workshops that Florida International University’s LEAD Team organizes. The team consists of eight students who each have different responsibilities in facilitating leadership workshops for other student organizations, new student orientations, First Year Experience classes for incoming freshmen, and several of the Center for Leadership and Service leadership programs.

“The goal of the organization is to promote the positive effects of leadership development and how it can help you in life and the classroom,” says Alton Austin, LEAD team advisor. According to Austin, most of the team members say they join to help other students learn what they’ve learned as members of the team.

During its workshops, the LEAD team gets people out of their chairs and involved with the presentations. Some of the topics they cover are motivation, time management, group cohesion, communication, and effective leadership skills.

The team’s primary activity is the Academy Leader Retreat, which is open to any student who wants to participate. While it’s targeted at freshmen and sophomores, there are usually some juniors, seniors, and graduate students too, Austin says. The retreat is tailored to students who realize they need to work on a specific leadership or teamwork skill, and more often than not, the students are trying to prepare themselves for some type of leadership role in a student organization. “During these retreats, people start telling stories about how and why they got started with the LEAD team, and it makes others want to know how to be a part of it,” Austin says.

Every spring semester, a new LEAD team is chosen, and students go through an application process to join. Some members are chosen to lead again based on their performance and commitment the year before. Each member receives a textbook scholarship of $125 to $200 a semester, depending on his or her level of participation.

Alton says the organization helps its members build confidence in public speaking and develops their leadership skills. “We had a team retreat in December, and the thing I remember hearing most was ‘thank you,’” Alton says. –RG

Contact Austin at cls@fiu.edu.

Best Gym Transformation
Extreme Makeover: OWC Edition
One small gym, one crew of handymen and just one week to create a town hall setting with a down-home feel. It sounds like the makings of the latest reality renovation show, but it’s exactly what Okaloosa-Walton College had to work with when they found out that the President would be paying a visit.

On Aug. 5, the administration set to work to renovate their gym for a Bush-Cheney campaign stop. The crew at OWC teamed up with the campaign staff to install a stage, lighting, microphones, and decorations to create that overall town-hall feel. The crews worked overtime, and by some miracle, they managed to complete the project by the end of the week. “It was really a cooperative joint-effort and a lot of adrenaline,” says OWC’s Vice President Jill White.

“Down home” is what President Bush was looking for, and when he arrived Aug. 10, down home is what he got. The small gym was packed with more than 1,400 people screaming “Four more years!” Student-made posters welcomed the president as he spoke in the center of the crowd with his shirtsleeves rolled up. Things got so intense that the fire marshal showed up—the crowd was pushing his limits. “It was very charged,” White says. “It was one of those moments that transcends politics.”

Two hundred fifty OWC students attended the event. And if it wasn’t enough to hear a president speak at their school, some of them actually got to participate in the excitement. Several students from OWC’s collegiate high school, a dual enrollment program, sat in with the press to get a little taste of what it’s like to hit the campaign trail. Sitting six rows back from the president, they took notes and snapped pictures for a special section of the yearbook.

Student Jonathan Tallman not only received an education in the world of reporting but was motivated to become more educated about politics. “It inspired me to be more politically savvy—to watch the news more and read the newspaper,” he says.

Tallman’s fellow classmate even got to ask the president some tough questions. Kari Hayden says that although her question came out a bit wrong, she was thrilled just to have the chance to ask.  “I asked him about the international courts trying our troops. I don’t actually remember the answer because it was very, very nerve-racking,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to go into politics, so it was nice to see a little bit of how things were run.”

When the president made his exit, crowds lined the streets to watch the motorcade depart. But his visit won’t soon be forgotten at OWC. “I think everyone here felt that they got to be a part of a little piece of history,” White says. —MM

Contact White at whitej@owc.edu.

Best Shuttle Ride
UM Students Go Loco in Coco
A giant shark, a Kill Bill vixen, and an overgrown Smurf handed candy to tipsy college students as partygoers were directed onto University of Miami shuttles. It wasn’t beer goggles distorting the students’ vision; it was their friendly Student Government dressed for the occasion.

On Halloween night, UM’s SG volunteered to give up a night of partying in hopes of keeping their drunken classmates off the streets and out of dangerous neighborhoods. But just because you can’t go out and celebrate doesn’t mean you can’t dress up. The shuttle workers donned a wide array of costumes as music played and they handed out treats to the lines of students waiting for transport. “We always have to make sure students have a safe way to get to these locations,” says SG President Vance Aloupis.

Shuttles left from two different areas on campus and took students to a popular party spot, Coconut Grove. There, the streets are literally shut down for the blowout Halloween party, and parking isn’t just difficult, it can be dangerous in unfamiliar areas. Students could hitch a free ride on one of shuttles anytime between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m.

The service was so popular that at some points, there were lines of more than 200 students waiting to hop on. Halloween 2003 was the pilot year for the service, and the shuttles saw about 570 people. This year, the buses transported about 1,600 people. Needless to say, it was a huge hit with the students. “They were happy that this was being offered to them,” Aloupis says. “Hopefully, they’ll continue with it for the next few years.” —MM

Contact Aloupis at aloupis@miami.edu

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