<\/p>\n
Knights of the Roundtable held a free carnival for students from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at Memory Mall. The event featured a goat petting zoo, complimentary refreshments and three different bounce houses.<\/p>\n
Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n
Knights of the Round Table hosted the KORT Karnival at Memory Mall Tuesday to help students relax after midterms.<\/p>\n
The carnival featured classic games like ring toss and Connect Four, along with a live DJ from Knights of the Turntables<\/a> and free refreshments in the form of popcorn and snow cones.<\/p>\n Students could also engage with the goats at the event’s petting zoo,\u00a0which were brought\u00a0by Alaska Farms Orlando.<\/p>\n Anasofia Marin, the programming coordinator for KORT and senior political science major, came up with the idea of Karnival. She said she wanted it to be an opportunity for students to connect with one another while also having a chance to get away from the stress of midterms.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are just walking by, and they see people hanging out so they make connections, and it also makes them more aware of our organization overall,\u201d Marin said.<\/p>\n KORT is a student government-funded administrative resource working out of the Office of Student Involvement and aims to encourage further student participation in on campus events during each person’s collegiate experience, according to the OSI website.<\/p>\n It handles much of the paperwork for authorizing student organizations with connections to more than\u00a0600 different student-run organizations<\/a>, according to the OSI website.<\/p>\n Khoi Nguyen, a DJ for the event and senior computer science major, started with Knights of the Turntable last semester and was inspired by seeing the DJ\u2019s at different school events. Knights of the Turntable is an affiliate of KORT that provides music for the school’s live events and can also be booked for independent student-run events, according to KnightConnect<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA few weeks ago we did the Spirit Splash and got the crowd hyped for what I’d say is the biggest tradition for the school,\u201d Nguyen said.\u00a0\u201cIn a couple weeks we are doing Knight-Thon which is like UCF\u2019s biggest charity event. There’s only so much you can get involved in if you just go to classes.\u201d<\/p>\n Attendees of the Karnival got early access to nomination forms for the impact awards \u2014 KORT’s\u00a0monthly award given out to a registered student organization during fall and spring semesters. Winners receive recognition in the form of a certificate of excellence, recognition across KORT social media and a photo display within OSI.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good de-stress from midterms happening and all the things going on [in the world],\u201d Marin said. \u201cBefore I got involved in this, it was very much like ‘I\u2019m just coming here to do my classes and leave.’ Events that we put on allow people to stop, look around and just see another aspect of college.\u201d<\/p>\n The event also featured an assortment of bounce houses and a gladiator fighting arena where students could battle it out against one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n