The Healthy Campus Initiatives (HCI) hosts its weekly “Chill and Chat” event on Fridays at 11 a.m. in the Wellness Center. HCI provides snacks, board games and fun interaction among students.

“Chill and Chat” has been a recurring event for 10 years and is an event designed for students to kick back and relax on a Friday afternoon. They have the opportunity to stop in between classes, eat some snacks, play some games and go on with the rest of their day. 

Students can come in, swipe their student ID and choose the game of their liking. There are a plethora of snacks to choose from like KIND bars, Little Debbie’s muffins, chips, as well as juice and water. 

“The main purpose of this event is for people to have a good time and hopefully relieve some stress. We want people to feel more included on campus. A lot of people just come to school and they go home and that’s it. That’s all college is, but there’s a lot more to that,” Robert Zoroichak, an HCI intern and junior psychology major, said. 

A variety of games were offered such as Connect Four and Apples to Apples, but UNO was the game of the hour.

The game started off as any normal UNO game would, but once new players uncovered the stacking rule of UNO, the game was intensified. So much so that three rounds were played and this took up the entire game time at this week’s “Chill and Chat.” 

Nathan Schultz, a new transfer student from Rowan College of South Jersey, said that he received an email about the event and decided to stop by.

“I liked the idea. Seeing other students and talking with them… It is definitely nice to meet and interact with more college students outside of my classes,” Schultz said.

HCI’s graduate coordinator Serina Gonzalez said that Chill and Chat is designed for students from all walks of life to come and feel free to be themselves. 

“It is about making students feel that they have a safe place to be– where the people around them are not judging them and they can come in and talk about whatever they want, however they want,” Gonzalez said. “It never has to be a serious topic if you don’t want it to be. Sometimes we have people come and they want to talk about something serious but we are that group that wants to make you feel comfortable to talk about those things.” 

The recent Super Bowl was at the height of conversation and shortly after students were sharing SpongeBob memes in relation to the rivaling teams. The floor is open to any kind of conversation at “Chill and Chat.”

“We try to have fun here. It is a good community building thing for other students to float in and out of,” Robert said.

Although “Chill and Chat” is only on Fridays, HCI offers other events like the “Loving The Skin You’re In” event being hosted on Feb. 21. It is an event for body appreciation week.

“We are going to teach people how to be body positive and teach people about eating disorders,” Serina said. 

HCI has weekly events so be sure to keep your calendars open. The next “Chill and Chat” event will be held on Friday, Feb. 18, at 1 p.m. with food and games for all who attend. 

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