The Connection Day team including (from left to right) Paige Wagner, Kendra Kvebak, Professor Susan Perala-Dewey, Trevor Peterson and Kelly Gilomen. Photo by Atticus Hodges

An end of semester project has turned into a full day of action to help people unplug from their phones and actually look to talk with people in a genuine manner.

When Kelly Gilomen, Kendra Kvebak, Tiana Forbes, Trevor Peterson, and Paige Wagner first thought of the idea in Fall 2019 in the Advanced Writing for Human Services Profession class, it started out as just that, a project.

However, along with the encouragement of their professor, Susan Perala-Dewey, as well as Associate Professor Jennifer Moore, their research has turned into a full day event at UMD, Connection Day on Feb. 18.

“When we presented it to our class everyone was so excited about it, as well as coming up to us saying that it was a great idea and we should implement it,” Kvebak recalled

The drive to start Connection Day was triggered in various ways for the group members, but they all had a few commonalities.

They are all striving to get people to have more social connections, along with raising awareness for the increase in a sense of loneliness in university students and the fact that anxiety and depression rates are at an all time high, according to their editorial they wrote for The Bark.

“We do know about the rise in mental health and loneliness and suicide attempts….which is why it’s a community, or a whole campus event just because it impacts everybody, and everybody has something to gain from it,” Professor Perala-Dewey said.

The Connection Day team will have tables at various locations around campus with promotions and activities on Feb. 18, and a culminating raffle for various prizes at 2:45 p.m. for those that pledged to participate.

With their message and purpose clearly articulated, knowing what would be happening on the day itself was the next step, they are almost fully prepared for the upcoming eventful day.

The Connection Day team stated that there will be various “hot spots” around campus, with tables that are going to be located at Kathryn A. Martin Library, in the Labovitz School of Business and Economics building, near Tweed Museum of Art, and then finally at Kirby Garage.

The tables will officially be up and running at 10 a.m. on Feb. 18 until 3 p.m.

The people tabling will be handing out “Hello my name is….” stickers, and once people pick one up, they will enter into a raffle that will be held at Kirby Rafters at the end of the day. To be able to win, participants must pledge to participate actively throughout the day and look to unplug, according to the Connection Team.

“The tabling is just kind of the outreach where people can get stickers and the stickers will represent how people are representing the day and these people are participating,” Gilomen stated.

Another component to the tabling is that there will be conversation starters that people can pick up to use “in the spirit of the day” Peterson said, in addition to little snacks as well.

One of the big focuses of the day, and a big reason much of this has been put into place, is that they want to raise awareness of mental health and how their Connection Day is looking to help give facts and resources related to that.

A way they are looking to raise awareness of this aspect is having a table in the library to promote the Zen Den, also located at the Kathryn A. Martin Library, specifically in the Annex. Gilomen described the Zen Den as a “journaling sanctuary.” The library will provide all the materials for journaling as well as providing prompts.

The Connection Day team also hopes to promote “Unplugged Events” located in RSOP as well as through Kirby Program Board (KPB). Such events will be the Free Skating and Free Bouldering, since these events require one to not look at their phone and interact with others. KPB will be putting on some Unplug Events as well that week.

The Connection Day team realizes they have been promoting that they are hoping people will put their cell phones down, yet they wished to stress that they are not entirely anti-technology, but instead are pro-talking. “It’s kind of more focusing on the connection aspect and making the social interactions that matter” Peterson said.

“We’ve learned that like basically taking away your phone is going to allow you to have so many more positive engaging interactions with others and that’s kind of the takeaway” Gilomen said.

Leading up to the day, the Connection Day team are incredibly excited due to the responses they have heard from students.

The team has been able to recruit volunteers to help table. Other students have informed them they are excited, especially many professors.

“Whenever I tell professors about it, they definitely get the most excited,” Gilomen said.

This is due to the fact that many students are on their phones distracted instead of engaging in classes, according to Gilomen.

The team stated that connections don’t just have to be between students. The connections faculty and students make can be extremely beneficial for both parties.

The Connection Day team heavily emphasized the big role that Professor Perala-Dewey had on the project as well.

“Susan has been a massive part of this, without her this definitely would not have happened” Gilomen said.

Kvebak agrees as well, talking about how “she’s pushed us to actually make it happen.”

The group has an overall hope that this will not just be a one-time event either, although Gilomen admitted they can’t know for sure.

“Let’s find out what the surveys say and how people respond,” Gilomen said. “We’re hoping that it will continue because I think it’s a good message and can be beneficial.”

This information and more can be found on the Connection Day page on UMD’s website.

Connection Day team finalizes plan for unplugged events