Homecoming Week officially began on Monday morning with the Homecoming Kick-Off Carnival on Greene Street.
The event, which took place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., was a way for the various student organizations involved with homecoming to start off strong in their bids for the Homecoming Cup. Janel Moore, a second-year international studies student and member of the recruitment committee for USC Dance Marathon, explained how the Homecoming Cup gives organizations incentive to provide the best experiences for students throughout the week.
“Homecoming Cup is this competition between different organizations,” she said. “Whoever has the most participation and gets the most tickets and I guess really shows out for homecoming, they win a trophy at the end of homecoming.”
Various student organizations such as Dance Marathon, Student Government and Carolina Productions set up free activities across Greene Street, ranging from mini golf to bracelet making and high striker machines.
Throughout the process, students earned tickets which could in turn be exchanged for prizes such as Fitbits and Amazon Echo devices.
Beyond giving student organizations a resource for outreach and participation, the carnival also serves as a “sneak-peak” of sorts to the upcoming complementary events to come throughout the week, most of which the Homecoming Commission has been planning for nearly a year.
“Everything that you’re seeing here, and everything throughout the week is free to students,” said Julia Weiner, a second-year sports and entertainment management student who works for the Homecoming Commission. “Homecoming week is 110 percent free. We’ve been putting it together since the beginning of January. So this has been a whole year-long process for us.”
Weiner said that looking towards the remainder of Homecoming Week, she hopes that the USC community will turn out in large ranks to all the activities that are planned.
“I just feel last year student participation in general just lacked big time for us, so I just want to see turnout increase with events that we hadn’t before,” she said. “We’re trying to push inclusion this year, which is just a big thing for me especially. I just want to see everybody really turn out.”
Thus far, students said they enjoyed the activities available at the carnival and that it made them excited about what is to come throughout the week.
William Mendoza, a first-year pre-business student, said he had especially enjoyed activities like the giant bowling pins, and was looking forward to other events throughout the week.
“It’s only the first day, but so far it’s been a good experience,” he said.
To many involved with homecoming, the ultimate goal of the week to foster a sense of community and togetherness within the USC community.
“I just hope that [students] get to see, especially for freshmen, that University of South Carolina is a really big community. Even though the school feels so huge and so spread out at times, it’s just one giant community,” Weiner said. “We’re all here, we are all just having a good time, genuinely, we’re all just here to be one big home. 'Cause our theme this year is “Sweet Home Carolina,” ... everyone should feel at home here. It’s just always a good time, and that’s what I want people to feel.”