Starting with a bang: ‘Week of Welcome’ 2022
‘Week of Welcome’ is the traditional advent of university life at Middlesex University Dubai. From 19th to 23rd September, we watch as the university transforms into the perfect place to participate in the myriad (get it?) of social clubs and activities and register for them, along with the opportunity to meet new people and make great connections.
The five-day extravaganza is annually held simultaneously at Dubai Knowledge Park (DKP) and Dubai International Academic City (DIAC). Launched in 2021, the DIAC campus offers state-of-the-art facilities, along with convenience for those residing at the Myriad.
The ‘Week of Welcome’ at DIAC kicked off with a foray into the artsy side, thanks to the Art & Design Club and Poetry Club. The Art & Design Club showcased two games displaying the wild and chaotic side of an otherwise high-brow field. The first one was Pictionary, an absolute classic (’nuff said). The second one, Pass it On, had more twists, with two players given 60 seconds to draw something, only for them to swap their drawings at the halfway mark and complete them in the remaining time.
Over in verse land, the Poetry Club delved into pop culture with Pop Culture Poetry, where the club described a movie or show in a poem, and the players had to guess what it was. Their second game, Did You Know, involved players guessing the person who wrote an excerpt of poetry. Anushka, one of the coordinators of the Poetry Club, said, “The people who dropped in were extremely interested in the games and very engaged. We wanted to show that poetry can be different in the traditional sense and that there are ways to relate it, even to modern things.”
The clubs hope that these games further develop the scope of the clubs and prove that these fields can be fun and not unapproachable for the newcomer whatsoever. It was reassuring to witness the amiability with which the students at DIAC participated in the games. Although the DIAC campus isn’t as big as DKP, our club coordinators and volunteers deserve kudos for their commitment to building the DIAC campus’s spirit and creating engaging activities.