Junior Ron’Tayza Hill pours the remaining hot chocolate into cups to hand out to students. Last year’s hot chocolooza involved unintentional frozen cans of whipped cream and sparse hot water. 
[heading size=”18″]’Hot Chocolooza’ undergoes planning changes and aims to please students[/heading] Similar to how Popsicalooza signaled the end of summer break and start of school, Student Council hopes their annual Hot Chocolooza event, which takes place this Friday, will reel students out of the winter break-mindset and back into the routine of school with a cup of hot chocolate topped with a swirl of whipped cream.
With sparse hot water and frozen bottles of whipped cream, students last year who were on the receiving end of Hot Chocolooza were more disgruntled than delighted. Mostly organized by the freshmen representatives in Student Council, this year’s Hot Chocolooza planning committee integrated sophomores with the freshmen to prevent the haphazard turnout and prevent mistakes from last year.
“We didn’t really have enough hot water right away, and by the time we actually served it, the chocolate had fallen a lot to the bottom, just kind of like they do in most things. We tried to stir it, but we also were trying to conserve our hot water so we would have enough for everyone,” senior Student Council representative Kelly Wilkerson said. “We have some of the freshmen from last year integrated with the freshmen [this year] to just kind of set it up and help them. It’s still very much the freshmen in charge, but it’s supposed to help it, so we don’t hit these big barriers.”
Along with employing more sophomores to help out with this year’s freshmen representatives, Student Council plans to utilize their committee report from previous Hot Chocolooza events.
“Anything that went wrong, we addressed the ways to make it not go wrong the next year. Just little things like that—communication, writing things down, because we don’t remember everything that happened the year before if we don’t write it down,” Student Council sponsor Christina Thalhuber said. “That helps in really knowing quantities we need to buy and all that stuff, basically.”
[quote]We didn’t really have enough hot water right away, and by the time we actually served it, the chocolate had fallen a lot to the bottom, just kind of like they do in most things. We tried to stir it, but we also were trying to conserve our hot water so we would have enough for everyone. —Kelly Wilkerson[/quote] For most freshmen representatives, organizing Hot Chocolooza serves as their first experience heading the planning and follow-through of an event, which provides them with essential leadership skills. Junior Boon Palipatana and senior Quinn Miller were in charge of the planning committee their freshmen and sophomore year, respectively.
“It was the first time that I was ever in charge of a committee and it was really fun organizing it,” Palipatana said. “I basically learned how to organize an event, who to go to when organizing an event, how to plan quantity-wise, and who to communicate with.”
While the freshmen representatives are the main planners in preparing roughly 1600 servings of hot chocolate, sophomores, juniors and seniors will still help by distributing cups of the beverage to fellow students. Not only will Hot Chocolooza give all Student Council members a chance to serve the community, but can also help students slip back into a mindset that’s ready to learn. 
“It’s a great way to welcome students back and get them excited about coming back to school, because sometimes, there’s not enough to get you excited to come back after a break,” Thalhuber said.
photo by Mariah Journey