Kansas State University

Congratulations to Smurthwaite and Ford for winning the Residence Hall Division in Homecoming!!

This year was the 100th year of homecoming at KSU! It was filled with lots of excitement and fun for Smurthwaite. We were paired with Ford Hall this year for the activities. Each pairing was given a decade as their theme. Our theme was the 1940’s and our women did a splendid job of displaying that through out the week. Our homecoming chair this year was Qingling (Kelly) Li with the help of Bethany Herl. We had high rate of involvement from the house and our events went fantastic. The week of homecoming was filled with many activities including the 5K, Crazy Cat Kickoff, Spirit Signs, Paint the Ville, Children’s Carnival, and the Parade.

The first event our members participated in was the Homecoming 5K! We had two members run this year, Natalie Davis and Megan Scharping. Both did very well and finished in the first half of the runners! Having these two in the race help earn our pairing with extra points for the week.

                 
Smurthwaite runners Megan Scharping (purple and white) and Natalie Davis

The second event we participated in was Crazy Cat Kickoff. This event was hosted my our own Emily Klesner who was on the All University Homecoming Committee. For this event our team had two pairings with members from Smurthwaite. Ford Hall, Jardine, the Living Community, and Moore Hall. We had a lot of fun participating in the 5 rounds of events. We received 3rd in this event.

Smurthwaite members, Mary Conner, Hannah May, Karley Mishler, Makynna Johnson, Grace Reilly, and Emily Klesner, posing with Willie after Crazy Cat Kickoff 

Our pairing put a large amount of effort in to our Spirit Sign and our window in Aggieville this year! They turned out amazing and were placed in the top 3 in both signs and paintings. Both did an amazing job or portraying our 1940’s theme and have so much talent in them!

   Smurthwaite and Ford Hall’s Spirit Sign (above) and Paint The Ville Window

The Children’s Carnival was a blast for us. Our women truly enjoyed getting to have fun with the children of the community. Ford and Smurthwaite designed a ring toss booth for the children that went over wonderfully.

Kirsten Nilges, Kelsi Briggs, and Valerie Nguyen all dressed up for the Carnival

Madison McLenon and Ford Hall members at our Ring Toss booth

Our women worked very hard to make this years float stand out with in the residence hall division. They put a lot of time and thought into it. Our float did well in the rankings of the division and helped get us over the edge to win 1st place overall.

The Smurthwaite/Ford Float 

Our fantastic volunteers who walked the parade, Bethany Herl, Alex Aye, Qingling (Kelly) Li, Ashlea Baalmann, Lauren Teschner, and Miranda Stubbs  

Overall, homecoming week was a great success for Smurthwaite. We truly enjoyed getting to work with Ford hall and appreciate all the hard work they put in. The week was a way for us to stand out among the residence halls and put our mark on campus. We were sad to see the Cats get a loss at the game, but we will always be there to cheer on our team!

 With love,

Your Smurthwaite Sisters

 Smurthwaite has started the year off strong. This semester we have 17 returning members and 18 new members in the house. We have also welcomed our new Resident Assistant, Charlotte Graham. Charlotte is a Smurthwaite Alumnae and is doing a great job helping us in the house. Having an RA is new for our house this year. Housing and Dinning decided to give us an RA to help keep us better connected to the other residence halls and to help out the executive board. We are excited to see what programs she has planned for the year and how she is going to work to make Smurthwaite the best it can be.

The week before classes start we had Retreat week. During this week the members of the house spend time getting adjusted and getting to know each other. Retreat week this year was filled with lots bonding and fun! We spent time in kitchen and house training along with going to the KSU Challenge Course and having a picnic with our brother house, Smith. At the end of the week we had a nice sit down dinner made for us by Smurthwaite alumnae. We want to thank all the women who came and cooked for us that night! Above is our traditional picture on the steps we take every year after the dinner. Below is a picture of the women of the house making our Smurthwaite S!

Our favorite part of retreat week was Big/Little reveal! For this each old member is a big and all the new members are the littles. Every Big gets paired with one or two littles for the year. This year the littles had to go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find their puzzle piece. Once they found it they ran outside to match it to their bigs puzzle piece! Our Big/Little program is done so that the new members of the house can have an old member to get to know and get advice from. We have monthly events with our Bigs and Littles to help us bond and have a good time together.

Below is a picture of all the Bigs waiting for their new littles out on the porch.

All the women of the house are adjusting well to their new house duties and classes. So far this semester we have already had a many program hosted and multiple tours of the house. We are looking forward working with Ford hall for homecoming and are in the process of planning float and Paint the Ville ideas. All the women of the house are excited for our many upcoming activities and to be able to get to know each other even more.

With love,

Your Smurthwaite Sisters