Samhi C.

“I am going to Homecoming because I never got to go my senior year of high school.” This was Farah Trentalange’s statement made less than twenty-four hours before the Fall 2021 Lions Gate Homecoming Dance that was held on Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 7:00 P.M. at the Penn State Lions Gate Apartments (LG). 

Farah, a current Penn State Abington freshman, like many of LG’s residents missed out on various high school events due to the effects of COVID. For Farah, it was her senior year homecoming dance that she missed. For others it was prom. For some, it was graduation. And then, there are those who missed out on a combination of these traditions that almost mark a rite of passage into adulthood. I would know. Because I am one of these people. I missed both my senior year prom and never had an in-person graduation. For nearly one and half years, I felt like a part of my transition from childhood into adulthood was broken. 

So, when my co-LG Resident Assistant (RA), Patrice Manasse pitched that Lions Gate do a homecoming dance this Fall, I, and all the other Fall 2021 LG RAs, knew it had to happen. Though Patrice herself is a current college junior and did experience her last high school dance, she says, “If Penn State Main can do homecoming, we can too… I want to give people memories.” RA Devin Skeete supports this sentiment, saying, “Not everyone had the chance to go to homecoming or have a homecoming [in high school] so I wanted to make that an experience that everyone could have.” RA Ashley-Taylor Ajayi, more commonly known as Ashley, mimics this sentiment, saying, “It’s such a fun thing… I know a lot of us didn’t get our final school dance because of COVID… And I wanted it to be fun… a memorable event.” RA Emina Mulaosmanovic also “thought it would be a fun social event to bring people together.”

Collectively, the RA team at LG, with the support of our Residence Life Coordinators and many other campus organizations – including the Center of Student Achievement, Lion Productions, Student Engagement and Leadership, Alumni Associations, Alliance Christian Fellowship, and the Office of Global Programs – decorated the LG front yard and main lobby and created a night of food, music, dancing, games, and conversation for residents and Abington commuters who wished to attend. RA Christo Thankachan says, “it [the Homecoming] was a great way to socialize with a lot of people, play games, and have food.” The night before, we created party favors for the attendees and gift baskets for Spirit Week Raffle winners and the elected Homecoming Court consisting of PSU pencils, stickers, notepads, water bottles, string bags, and other PSU items. RA Re’naijah Purvis who oversaw the making of these party favors and baskets says, “I like to see other people happy and enjoying their time. I pushed hard on the party favors because I wanted residents to take something with them and know that we put in the effort.” 

The afternoon of, we set up two tents outside with tables underneath with pizza, chips, and sodas laid out. For music, we connected a bluetooth speaker that blasted a “specially curated” Spotify playlist – as Ashley who primarily arranged it calls it – which all the RAs contributed to. Attendee requests were also taken into consideration on the night of. Matthew “Matt” Dada, who requested DJ Casper’s “Cha Cha Slide”, is a current Abington sophomore and commuter. Matt says, “I am a dancer… I picked the Cha Cha dance because my friend suggested it to make everyone dance.” Matt’s friend wasn’t completely wrong. When songs like the “Cha Cha Slide” and Los Del Río’s “Macarena” came on, a lot more people, even those who preferred to just sit at a table for some good conversation, got up to dance. RA Kavan Adeshara says, “To be honest… I was not planning on attending the Homecoming [dance] because I wanted to take this month off. But I thought if it has anything to do with dance, I have to go… dance is in my DNA.”

Towards the end of the night, as the crowd began to wane, we kept the party going by transferring the speaker into the main lobby. We had a photobooth set up and after taking a group picture, while Patrice, Re’naijah, Christo, Kavan, and myself were set up there with some attendees who wished to join us, Emina, Devin, and our remaining co-RAs Gizelle Ingersoll and Joseph “Joe” Handlin opened up the Multipurpose Room, inviting attendees to join them for card games and conversation. Gizelle says, “We were just bonding with our residents and having a good time… Not everyone likes to dance… This was something that matched their personality.”

Afterwards, I asked Farah what her experience was like and she said, “All my roommates, they didn’t want to come at first and I convinced them… I had a great time… More people than I expected.” There were 49 attendees who were recorded at check-in and still more who arrived but were unable to swipe their ID cards. Joe backs up this statement by saying, it was a “really good turn out. Really happy to see everybody that came. I became invested in Homecoming because it was our first large event as a team at Lions Gate. I also saw it as a cool way to hang out with everybody. I enjoyed it. There were people that showed up that I hadn’t seen in years.” 

As this type of event is usually arranged for a high school crowd, I asked Farah if she’d like to see more events like this at LG, like perhaps a Prom night at the end of Spring semester. Her response: “I think they should because during COVID, people didn’t get to experience these kinds of events. And I like them. I think they’re really fun. I mean, luckily I got to experience Prom, [though it was arranged by a student outside of school], but I would go.”

And it wasn’t only students who missed high school events because of COVID that enjoyed the dance. Charles Li, an Abington sophomore and LG resident who was also one of the Spirit Week Raffle winners, says, “This was so much better than my high school dance.” When I asked what his favorite part of the dance was, he said, “Oh, gosh, I’m not sure. Basically, I like all of them.” He too agrees that LG should run more events such as this in the future. 

RA Joe also agrees to this point, saying, “I’d really wanna have another dance. I think it was really lovely. People were coming out to dance. People I’d never seen talk to each other were talking to each other.”

The Fall 2021 LG Homecoming Dance was a multifaceted opportunity. People who missed out on high school traditional dances could get back those experiences. LG residents – and Abington students, in general – could come together as a community and celebrate the Fall semester. We all could have one stress-free night during which we could forget about midterms and enjoy ourselves. Because we all deserve a little fun now and then. 

And now, back to work.

But before I leave, a final remark I’d like to make is that though I cannot make any guarantees, prospects for a Spring 2022 LG Prom are looking good.