Amelia Dewberry-

Building Bridges invites you to join them for Building Bridges Bingo tonight, Nov. 17th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Courtyard Cafe. The event will include six rounds of bingo, popcorn, and a chance to win a variety of prizes.

One of the event organizers, Senior Olivia Falk encourages people to “… stop by if they like playing bingo and winning awesome prizes, or if they just want to learn more about Building Bridges.” Prizes include a Squishmallow, Owala water bottles, games, and more.

Building Bridges is a social justice organization “that works to put on a student-run conference every year about a different social justice topic,” Falk said. The topic for the upcoming conference is Childhood Poverty. Past conference topics have included Unseen Passages: Refugees and the Collective Fight for Vitality and Knowledge is Power: Dismantling Systematic Bias in Educational Institutions.

“The conference features an array of speakers and an interactive experience that immerses guests in the issue that we research [for] that year. The conference is a great opportunity for students, faculty, and the community to educate themselves on the highlighted issue and raise awareness about it,” Building Bridges Co-Chair and Senior Ainsley Langrud said. It will take place on Saturday, March 2nd, 2024 in Beck Hall.

Students interested in joining Building Bridges to plan the conference can join the group at their weekly meetings from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Wednesdays in Beck 111.

Meetings are composed of three sections: introductions, educationals, and committee time. Langerud explained that icebreaker introductions “help to build the friendships that BB thrives on.” The group prioritizes knowing the people collaborating on projects very well. Different educationals are given every week on a subtopic of the issue. This year, Senior DLC Representative Tessa Yeager presented on food stamps, and Senior Finance Chair Zach Tlusty talked about foster homes, their role in childhood poverty, and their presentation in the media. Lastly, the group is divided into three committees’ meetings: Events, Action-Piece, and Workshop.

“Events works to create and host different events to get our student body more engaged in BB’s initiatives” and is also the committee behind BB Bingo, Langerud said.

Action-Piece and Workshop are heavily involved in planning and running the spring conference. Action-Piece is a creative committee tasked with creating “individual experiences around the conference’s topic,” Langerud explained. She described that “A/P is working to simulate the experiences of children in poverty and the multifaceted issues that they face.”

Workshop, on the other hand, hosts speakers to provoke discussion of the conference topic. “This committee . . . provides greater awareness around the topic on a personal scale,” Langerud said.

Langerud invites students to get involved with Building Bridges “because it is an excellent way to get in tune with social justice issues and become an actor of advocacy against them.” She added that students can also build skills for their resume like project management, interpersonal communication, and leadership skills. It is important to note that there are plenty of leadership opportunities for members, including roles for first-year students.

Building Bridges hopes to see a lot of student engagement at BB Bingo, upcoming events, and the spring conference. “If students are interested in seeing what Building Bridges is about first-hand, they are warmly welcomed to join us,” Langerud said.