UF students painted flower pots green, red, yellow and blue on the Plaza of the Americas on Tuesday.
Student Government’s Freshman Leadership Council held its first Spring Forward, Look Back event during which students painted flower pots, threw beanbags while playing cornhole and wrote advice for incoming freshman.
“It’s about welcoming the new freshman class that’s going to be here in literally two or three months,” said Ali Kassam, the chairman of FLC.
They started planning the event — for which SG gave about $450 in funding — at the beginning of the semester, he said.
Students who had finished their first years wrote advice on a large white poster, Kassam said. The poster, which read, “When I was a freshman, I wish I knew…,” had about 30 responses by the end of the event.
Anisha Patel, a UF finance freshman, decided to stop by the event.
She painted a pot to bring back to her residence hall to brighten her room, she said.
Patel painted her flower pot with red flowers and a blue rim while her friend painted her pot blue and yellow and wrote “Hello Spring” on it.
The 19-year-old said she hopes future freshmen take each day in stride.
“My first semester I didn’t think it was as overwhelming to be here because I knew a lot of friends, and I had a good support system,” she said. “But when classes start getting tough, you know what you as an individual can handle.”
Anisha Patel, a 19-year-old UF finance freshman, paints a flower pot during Student Government’s Freshman Leadership Council’s Spring Forward, Look Back event on the Plaza of the Americas on Tuesday.
