By: Ava-Caroline Schmidt
“Pickleball and Popsicles” was a health science social event that took place on September
27, at 7 p.m. on Southern Adventist University’s tennis and pickle ball courts.
The event featured recreational pickleball with drinks such as Gatorade, soda, water and
lemonade, as well as snacks like candy, chips, bars, and of course, popsicles. It was an event that
brought health science students and anyone they wanted to invite out for an evening of
competition, food and community.
Abby Luong, a junior health science major, organized the event as part of an effort to
create more opportunities for students in the major to connect. Luong also held a raffle
throughout the night where any health science major who came to the event would get a ticket
and be in the running for a prize. At the end of the night, the winner of the raffle was Kenzie
Hall, a junior Health Science major, who won the prize of a small speaker.
The event was designed to give health science students an opportunity to socialize
outside of the classroom. The major does not currently have an official student club, leaving
many students connected to organizations associated with other academic and pre-professional
programs.
“Many of us usually get grouped in with the biology or chemistry majors because of our
common pre-professional tracks, but there are definitely some big differences between our
majors,” Luong said. “We usually just float around to different groups because in the past, there
hasn’t been an organized health science club or anything.”
Luong hopes pickleball will be the first of several activities that bring health science
students together. She plans to continue organizing monthly events that could include badminton
and other recreational games.
“We want to grow a community that we health science majors can call our own,” Luong
said. “While it’s not an official club, we want to give opportunities to get together and build
relationships with casual social events throughout the semester.”
For senior health science major Katie Hamilton, pickleball was a natural choice for the
event.
Hamilton said she was unsure of what she wanted to study when she first came to
Southern. After meeting Randy Bishop, an Allied Health adviser, she found guidance as she
explored her academic path. Bishop’s enthusiasm for pickleball eventually encouraged Hamilton
to try the sport out for herself.
Hamilton said she came to enjoy not only playing pickleball but also the sense of
community surrounding the sport.
“When I think of Allied Health, health science and community, I think a lot about
pickleball because it seems like we love pickleball a lot,” Hamilton said. “We do tournaments in
the gym and stuff too. So yeah, I saw the email and I was like, ‘Oh, I love pickleball and I love
the health science community.’”
With plans for more events throughout the semester, Luong hopes the gatherings will
help health science students develop connections within their own major.
For now, the combination of pickleball, popsicles and friendly competition is giving
students – health science majors especially – a place to start and find a group of their own.
