{"id":24263,"date":"2014-04-24T12:44:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T22:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=24263"},"modified":"2020-05-18T14:53:59","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T00:53:59","slug":"west-fest-promotes-campus-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2014\/04\/24\/west-fest-promotes-campus-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"West Fest promotes campus spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eti-i-v6PSE\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uhwo.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8211;West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span><\/a> is enjoying its new campus. Opened in fall 2012, the school already has an important tradition&#8212;West Fest.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is a celebration of all good and great things here at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8211;West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>,&rdquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Student Life Coordinator <strong>Rouel Velasco<\/strong>. &ldquo;It is a showcase of our students, our student clubs and what they offer the community.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>One of the main goals of the student organized, annual spring semester event is to promote community service. For instance, the popular instructor dunk booth is a fundraiser for the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Food Bank.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If you bring in three cans of food, then you get three tosses to try to dunk your favorite, or maybe your least favorite instructor,&rdquo; said student <strong>Elton Stephenson<\/strong> with smile.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/westfest.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"226\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/westfest.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/westfest-260x146.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This year, West Fest included food booths, a clothing sale, balloon animals, airbrush body painting, caricature drawing, games like musical chairs dance off, entertainment and lots of fun.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is important for students because it kind of gives a sense of belonging to campus,&rdquo; said student <strong>Laura McDowell<\/strong>. &ldquo;It is stimulating campus life.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a campus life that the students are very proud of and say they are fortunate to have. West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> features brand new facilities, small class sizes and committed instructors.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You would think that at a public university, you would just be another face in the crowd full of lecturers and stuff like that, its not like that here at all,&rdquo; said student <strong>Rebecca Carino<\/strong>. &ldquo;They make you feel at home.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Nice and small and cohesive where students can connect more one and one, connect with the faculty more, and develop relationships,&rdquo; said Velasco.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is really a tight knit community and everybody knows one another and we all have a place on campus,&rdquo; said student <strong>Julian Torres<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The professors know you, the office knows you the staff knows you,&rdquo; Carino.<\/p>\n<p>West Fest is also a chance for students to expand their campus life experience by meeting members of the school&#8217;s different clubs and organizations. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The opportunities on this campus are really limitless and this is really just the beginning of it,&rdquo; said Torres. &ldquo;What we can do together is really great.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>West Fest also serves as an important reminder&#8212;after decades of dreaming, lobbying and planning, West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> has its own campus.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And it is about time that we have a presence in this community, serving this area,&rdquo; said Velasco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The student organized event included food booths, a clothing sale, balloon animals, airbrush body painting, caricature drawing, games, entertainment and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[59,56],"class_list":["post-24263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-uh-west-oahu","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24263"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118796,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24263\/revisions\/118796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}