Campus is invited to share smiles this week as the student organization UNL SMILE puts on its inaugural UNL Smile Week with the help of the UNL Character Council and the Multicultural Greek Council.
From April 14-18, students will be encouraged to promote positivity on campus and participate in random acts of kindness, said Brock Rezny, president of the group.
“We’re going to have challenges for happiness that people can pick up outside of the Nebraska Union,” he said.
Students can grab one of 200 challenges that will be handed out each day and participants are encouraged to pass them on and share their acts on social media with the hashtag #unlsmile.
There will be four different challenges and four areas of random acts of kindness, he said. They include thanking someone who inspired you, doing something for the community, meeting someone new or making a new friend and doing something for a stranger.
To end the week, the group will host “Take a Seat, Meet a Husker,” where they will have two ball pits on the Nebraska Union Plaza.
“We want to encourage students to sit down with someone that they wouldn’t normally sit down with in the ball pit and make a new friend,” said sophomore biology major and group member Liz Simoneau.
There will be a giant ball in the pit with questions on it where participants can choose from to ask their neighbor, she said.
Since the organization’s start in November, UNL SMILE — an acronym for “Small Moments in Life Everyday” — members have gotten together to make a difference in students’ everyday lives. With about 20 active members at the beginning of March, Simoneau said the group is growing slowly but surely.
“It’s really cool to see all of the new members that we get and the talents that they can bring, especially to such a big event like Smile Week,” she said. “It’s really exciting.”
