Posted September 3, 2015

Winning September, on campus and off: 12 things to do this month

On campus

1. Save your Diamond Dollars.
Looking for a Friday night hang? Good news! You don’t have to scram away from campus. Free Food and Fun Fridays is a weekly happening that features entertainment (e.g., a game show or comedian)—and the greatest thing any college student could ask for: free food. Each week at 10 p.m. is a different event so, unlike at that 8 a.m. class everyone told you not to take, you’ll never snooze.

2. Find yo’ niche.
The Student Organization Fair is the go-to event to find your campus clique. Whether you’re looking to volunteer, talk politics, play sports, go Greek or join a book club, you’ll find your like-minded posse here. From noon to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9, meander along Polett Walk among Temple’s 300 student organizations to discover your perfect fit.

3. Nom out at the weekly farmers market.
Snag fresh produce from the Cecil B. Moore Farmers Market every Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Take a night off from ordering pizza, guys, and enjoy farm-fresh treats from local growers.

4. Skiddly-dat-dat over to the jazz café.
If you ain’t got that swing, head to the Rite of Swing Jazz Café every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this month from 4 to 6 p.m. Boyer students and faculty will be keeping the beat in the lobby of the Temple Performing Arts Center. Free refreshments will be provided.

5. Get some culture.
It premiered in 1975, but the play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is as relevant today as it was then. This month, eight Temple students enact the stories of women of color through choreographed poems that The New Yorker called “passionate, fearless and all-encompassing.” Tickets for Temple students are only $10, and a conversation with the playwright, Ntozake Shange, on Sunday, Sept. 20, is free.

6. Mind your manners!
Everyone knows that gentlemen and ladies don’t chew with their mouths open, but do you know how to properly hold your silverware? (Yes, there are actually different ways.) What about how to pass the food? And what if you’re asked to dine with prospective employers or business associates? Fear not! All will be revealed on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at the Etiquette Dinner. It’s part of Career Week, which also includes a career fair, resume-writing workshops and other super-useful events.

7. Get rec’d.
Net Night starts at 7 p.m. on Fridays at Pearson Hall. Stop by the third-floor rec courts for your turn at every game with a net you can possibly think of. Take a swing (see what we did there?) at tennis, badminton, table tennis and volleyball.

8. Step up and feed Philly.
The Feed Philly Food Drive is an opportunity for the Temple community to fight hunger among our neighbors. It’s easy, too. Simply drop off canned and nonperishable food items at one of the Philabundance bins on campus; students who donate at either Barnes & Noble campus location will receive 20 percent off special Temple gear.

9. Play Pong on Morgan Hall?
Join renowned digital innovator Frank J. Lee, the man who hacked the LED lights of the Cira Centre to create a 29-story game of Pong and Tetris, for City at Play—a discussion on using urban structures and spaces as game tokens. His take on citywide interactive games and the intersection of physical and digital spaces, which takes place Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 2:30 p.m. at Paley Hall, is as unique as it is revolutionary.


Off campus

10. The zombies are coming.
Imagine wandering around an 11-acre, abandoned prison at night. Sounds creepy, right? Now imagine wandering around that prison surrounded by zombies and ghouls. People travel from all over the country to be terrified at Eastern State Penitentiary’s annual haunted house, Terror Behind the Walls; Temple students just have to go to the Fairmount neighborhood. The show runs through early November, but the least expensive tickets are available this month—same price as a movie, but far more frightening than even the scariest horror flick.

11. Winter is coming.
Well, fall is coming first, but the point is you don’t have too much longer to enjoy all the fair-weather outdoor events in our fair city. For example, a movie under the stars. Or the roller rink at Spruce Harbor Park. Or yoga, yoga and more yoga.

12. Your friends are coming.
All 5,000 of them will be at Dilworth Park on Sept. 12 for CollegeFest, a free event to welcome area college students to Philadelphia. Enjoy pop-up performances, play games and snag giveaways at the park. Then get to know the City of Brotherly Love with free, all-day access to Philly PHLASH, the downtown bus loop that stops at the city’s most popular attractions and cultural institutions, many of which offer free admission to students that day. So come get to know your city and your fellow students from across the region.


—Kate O’Neill and Steve Whisler




 

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