Lack Of School Spirit Within UCR!!!

Cynthia Lopez

The theme group Juicy R chose was “lack of school spirit.” As a group, we believed that UCR lacked school spirit. UCR is known for being the number one campus in student diversity. This means that our school enrolls the most diverse students than any other UC. Even though, our school has such a diverse community, the campus lacks unity among its students. By this I mean that students do not diverse among themselves. Even though we are a diverse campus, we do not show unity within one another. For example, we still stick to the same people we feel more comfortable hanging around with. We usually hang around with people with the same ethnicity we have. I am not saying all of us do so, but most of us students are not open to other cultures. I believe that if we as students connect more and unite all together, no matter the race or ethnicity, we can show school sprit. By everyone interacting with one another, we can all show more UCR school spirit.

As a group we all decided that we had to show lack of unity in UCR within our presentation. We did this by splitting into three groups within our own group. We all were part of UCR by representing a letter, either a U, a C, or an R. The costumes we decided to wear, was a T-shirt with the letter our group represented. I was part of the C group. We all represented a different ethnic group with a different dance. Group U danced to a modern Brazilian song. Group C danced to a 70’s Brazilian song. Last, but not least, group R danced to a samba song. The music our team used was Bossa Nova. The song represented a specific time and culture. Instead of using different ethnic groups to represent the people that attend UCR., we used songs to represent the different cultures here at the University of California Riverside. The choreography of our entire parade was created by Melissa, Stephanie, and Axel. We all had a chance to represent our group or letter. Our parade walk was created in order to represent the letter we were part of. At the beginning of our dance, each group was separated. Group U showed their dance, then groups C and R. Our dances were all different, representing the difference cultures students at UCR have. We did not have unity within the dances we all had to represent. Each group did their own thing. The gestures we made were ones that showed how we were apart and disprove of each others dance. This part of our dance showed the lack of unity we as student had. At the end of our parade, everything turned around. Each group came together to show how unity within students showed more school sprit. At the end of our parade, we all showed a part of our dance to one another. We all joined in in dancing to all the different Brazilian songs. We united as a whole representing our school by spelling out UCR. This union allowed us to show school spirit. At the end of the parade we all celebrated and chanted to our schools name. Through our parade, group Juicy R showed how without unity there is lack of school spirit within UCR.

My job as part of the Juicy R group, was to find a practice location to practice our parade route. I worked with Yvon on this assignment. I agreed with her that the REC Center was a great spot to practice our dance in. I asked to reserve the room; unfortunately, I was not able to get the room because reservations were only allowed for school organizations. I tried telling the coordinator that it was for our dance final, but she refused to schedule us to use the room. We ended up practicing in one of Pentlant’s study lounges. At the end the practice all worked out for the best. During the process I learned that as a UCR student, I do not get involve in no kind of activities occurring on campus. I saw that not only me, but also many other students at UC Riverside were not connected nor united as we should be. The process made me realize how much fun it is to show school spirit and get involve. I noticed that I had not attended as many UCR athletic events as I wish I should to support and demonstrate my school spirit. Through out the process I learned that the class had so much to offer. People can take this class for granted and see it just as another dance class; but it is more than that. Dancing takes many factors involved in it, from movements, techniques, style and meaning. Through our parade I experience what Dr. Scott meant with everything she thought us about dancing and movement. Applying all the concepts she taught us in class was a great experience in understanding better the course material.

If I was to continue with the piece I would add more choreography at the end of the piece. I would definitely show more unity and sprit at the end of the piece. Maybe we could had added people to join in our parade. For example, we could have asked basketball players, soccer, players, professors, and even cheerleaders to help us demonstrate the unity that UC Riverside can show. I would definitely suggest to my group to add more people to our parade. This would allow us to show what our theme was, “school spirit,” from the perspective of everyone in the campus.