Week of Welcome KICKOFF

Week of Welcome (WOW), held every fall and spring, is the official kickoff to the semester and prepares new students for life across all three USF campuses. This weeklong celebration features more than 100 events that encourage students to socialize and get involved:

• Kickoff: Join hundreds of Bulls to kick off your USF experience.

• Bulls Nite Out - Round Up Comedy Show: The Round Up Comedy show is one of the largest comedy shows of the fall semester. Past events have featured cast members from Saturday Night Live and Comedy Central.

• USF Class Photo: Join other new students to spell out U-S-F for a unique class photo. New Student Connections, Athletics, the Herd of Thunder Marching Band, Alumni Association, Campus Recreation, Student Government and Fraternity and Sorority Life will be on hand.

• Launch Yourself: Interested in finding out how to get involved on campus right now? Curious about how to buy tickets to a USF football game or want to study abroad? Different campus offices host how-to sessions to help students learn more about getting involved at USF right away.

• CHARGE: Grab Service By The Horns: Experience how Bulls serve their community. This is a chance to give back to the Tampa Bay area while meeting new friends, connecting with student leaders and staff and participating in a USF tradition.

• Welcome Back Jam: Get ready to help build community and promote unity among all USF students with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and the Greek Programming Board. Enjoy an afternoon with friends, burgers, music, games, step shows and live bands!

• Huddle: Meet with USF coaches for this annual preseason pep talk for ALL Bulls.

Bulls For Kids is the University of South Florida’s Dance Marathon program, a movement of studentrun philanthropies benefiting children’s hospitals around the country. Bulls For Kids is the largest student-run philanthropy on campus and benefits Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Bulls For Kids is a yearlong movement of events with patient families and fundraisers For The Kids. All fundraising and relationship development efforts are celebrated with an end-of-theyear, 12-hour celebration each spring, which takes over much of the Marshall Student Center and includes games, food, live performances, prizes and quality time with families from Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Since 2001, the Bulls Service Breaks (BSB) program has provided opportunities for students to engage in immersive service experiences addressing a variety of social issues in communities both domestic and abroad. Housed in the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, BSB is a part of a national movement of Active Citizenship whose purpose is to raise awareness of root causes of social issues and injustices through education, direct service and cultural exchange. Projects range from working on solutions to human trafficking to serving in the rainforest of Puerto Rico. These programs are held every year. Past trips include working with communities in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Belize and Ghana with international trips during the summer.

The USF St. Petersburg campus provides an opportunity for students to travel across the country to different service sites during their spring breaks and give back to diverse communities through Un-Bull-ievable Service Break trips.

USF celebrates its diversity in many ways and the International Festival (or iFest) is a fun one! Over 50 multicultural and other student groups and organizations transform the MLK Plaza into four different regions of the world, providing knowledge and cultural experiences found in these regions. Attending USF students get to interact with each other and, through engaging activities, experience the sounds, tastes and voices of a global community.

The St. Petersburg campus also holds an annual festival, where the campus community can meet students, faculty and staff from all around the world, partake in some cultural food snacking, and learn more information about upcoming studying abroad opportunities.

The annual Engineering Expo is proof that engineers know how to have fun! This two-day event draws thousands of K-12 students from around the state to our campus. Here they learn the importance of math and science from professional engineers and USF students in celebration of National Engineers Week in February. Engineering firms and companies from all over the country set up displays and demonstrations. Popular activities include Fun with Physics, the Chemical Magic Show, a laser light show and a very competitive Electrathon Car race.