{"id":457357,"date":"2026-09-08T17:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/457357\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T17:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:22:11","slug":"students-explore-campus-connections-resources-at-week-of-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/457357\/","title":{"rendered":"Students explore campus connections, resources at Week of Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cal State Long Beach\u2019s Week of Welcome<\/a> transformed upper campus into a bustling fair last week, featuring student clubs and organizations, university resources, cultural and religious groups, academic departments \u2013 and thousands of new and returning students. \u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 300 campus-related groups participated in the event, which occurs at the start of each fall and spring semester. The booths and tables stretched from the University Library<\/a> to the bookstore<\/a>, just a few yards from the top of the Friendship Walk. Booths ranged from the mariachi club, women\u2019s flag football and the bird watching club to fraternities and sororities, ASI student government<\/a>, Basic Needs<\/a> and the Black Student Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super cool. Despite the heat, I think it\u2019s really interesting,\u201d said Krystal Ngeam, a first-year psychology student. \u201cThere are so many clubs you can go to and ask questions. It\u2019s very diverse.\u201d Ngeam was interested in Cambodian and Chinese clubs, psychology-related clubs and the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Jasmine Orozco, a fourth-year exercise science kinesiology student, this Week of Welcome was her first, since she\u2019s a transfer student. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a lot of student participation here,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is definitely the fullest I\u2019ve ever seen the quad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orozco was interested in groups related to her major \u2014 the Exercise is Medicine Club<\/a> and the Pre-Physical Therapy Club<\/a>. But she was also interested in the salsa club, Latine clubs and martial arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it makes you want to be part of the community more, and spend time coming to school more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Campus resources like Guardian Scholars<\/a>, CAPS<\/a> and Project Rebound<\/a> had a strong presence at Week of Welcome. Basic Needs had a line of students stretching from its booth, most of them waiting for free paletas, or ice cream bars, and other giveaways. But they also learned about Basic Needs\u2019 resources<\/a>, such as CalFresh and emergency grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer support for any financial insecurity, housing insecurity, food insecurity that\u2019s directly impacting their ability to thrive academically,\u201d said Dulce Gonzalez, a CARES\/Basic Needs case manager at the booth. \u201cThis is a good opportunity to be front-facing with students, have them meet us. This can be a little more personal than sitting behind a desk at a computer.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Scores of students carried tote bags from various groups, filling them with swag, publications and info sheets representing different organizations. Many students were marking off squares in a scavenger hunt while visiting various booths.<\/p>\n

Associated Students Inc.<\/a> hosts Week of Welcome at the beginning of each semester. It\u2019s a signature part of its Beach Pride Events<\/a>, as is Smorgasport<\/a>, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on Sept. 11. \u00a0<\/p>\n

While Week of Welcome is geared toward CSULB students, staff and faculty members were also walking around, taking in the variety of clubs and organizations and talking to students. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Week of Welcome just exposes (faculty) to every possibility that their students might be interested in,\u201d said Tanya Cummings, a professor of graphic design who was in search of the Study Abroad<\/a> booth. \u201cThey can also become more familiar with campus resources, so they can refer their students. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy going around and seeing how students are participating, it recalibrates why you\u2019re doing this, and why working with students is such an important thing.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cal State Long Beach\u2019s Week of Welcome transformed upper campus into a bustling fair last week, featuring student…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1818,1820,7,1815,1821,1822,1819,131,133,132,1817,1816],"class_list":["post-457357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-49ers","tag-cal-state","tag-california","tag-college","tag-csu","tag-csulb","tag-dirtbags","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-beach-state","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}