MUW SOAs garner awards at 2004 SROW Region VI Conference
 

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Mississippi University for Women Student Orientation Assistants (SOAs) came back with two awards from the Southern Regional Orientation Workshop (SROW) held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

This year’s conference was themed “Tennessee SROW-Down” and serves as the regional NODA (National Orientation Directors Association) for Region VI, which consists of schools in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
    
MUW’s SOAs won fifth place in the skit competition and won the highly sought-after spirit award. In the past six years, MUW has won a total of two awards and this year came home with two major honors.

SOA advisor Joe Lowder said, “I am very proud of them. We made a name for ourselves there and left with 80 schools knowing who MUW was.”

Moneek Maples, SOA student director, said, “SROW strengthened us, it made our bond stronger.”

The spirit award is voted on by all 80 schools and separated into the categories of small and large schools. MUW was chosen for this award from more than 30 other small schools in the southern region.
Maples commented that from the moment a school arrives at SROW “you are on display.” Judging for the spirit award takes place from beginning to end of SROW and a school is judged on having a good attitude and superior school spirit.

Freshman art education major and SOA Carianne Fowler said, “For the small group that we are, I definitely think that we were heard and that we will be remembered. Overall we got to come together as a group even more and the experience of getting to know each individual more personally was wonderful.”

MUW placed fifth in the skit competition. Skits were judged using the following criteria: originality and creativity, appropriateness of song/skit, use of theme, entertainment value, evidence of teamwork, choreography, musical and theatrical quality, information about school’s orientation program and enthusiasm/school spirit.
   
Fowler said, “Since we won the spirit award I was definitely excited about that one. And to win fifth place in skit overall was just as wonderful.”

This year the SOAs decided on a skit based around an episode of the “Beverly Hillbillies.” To prepare for the skit, they watched an episode of the “Beverly Hillbillies” where Elly May Clampett prepares to go to college.
   
Not only did the SOAs participate in competitions, but they attended several educational sessions.

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