Homecoming brings together generations of alumni and current students for a busy week of events and celebration. It is a celebration of a shared cobber-ness and the love of community that Concordia brings to the Fargo Moorhead area.
This year, homecoming greets Concordia’s campus on Monday, Sept. 24 and extends through Sunday, Sept. 30. Students, faculty, alumni and many others put in hours of work, planning and care into this yearly tradition to make it a success for all parties involved.
Anna Buan, homecoming chair, has the role of overseeing all of the sub-committees alongside her executive team. She also facilitates the whole week of Homecoming itself to ensure that all the events will flow smoothly.
“This year I had three goals; plan the best homecoming yet, plan an inclusive homecoming and include more international students in the events,” said Buan. She emphasized how important it was to her that students on the Concordia campus truly feel at home and that it was a priority to include diverse and inclusive events for all students to feel involved.
“I hope that everyone feels at home at Concordia and that you feel drawn to come back and celebrate and reconnect as an alumni after graduation,” Buan shared.
Buan expressed how proud she is of each committee on how they took on such a challenge this year and how much inclusivity that demonstrated in the creation of this year’s homecoming.
Eric Johnson, the Director of Alumni Relations, will be experiencing his fifth homecoming in this position this year. His job allows him to work with dozens of students, five other alumni relations faculty and a group of alumni from recent graduates to as far as 1960s graduates.
“From coronation, to bonfire on Thursday night, to the alumni breakfasts, we are planning 45-60 events when you think about it and it is a huge campus-wide effort,” Johnson shared.
Johnson applauded all of the hard work and dedication put forth by so many people on campus. He mentioned that from the student perspective, it’s hard to see all the behind the scenes work that goes into such a great week, but that it is so worth it in the end. He hopes that students can just have plain fun and drink in the experiences with Cobbers of all ages.
“I think that students should find something to come to with the alumni so that they can find themselves in the arch of the history of this campus (…) everything that is happening to you, happened to them, you just have cooler phones,” Johnson said.
This year, Mikaela Herberg, a Concordia senior majoring in biology, got the chance to be part of the Homecoming court. Herberg shared how grateful she was for the opportunity to be on the homecoming court and how much fun the experience has been. Herberg is most looking forward to the bonfire this year as she reminisced that last year’s fire is one of her favorite college memories.
“Aside from the bonfire, I also loved the corn eating contest last year. I ate four ears and didn’t even get any kernels stuck in my teeth: a true Christmas miracle,” Herberg said moving into this year’s homecoming events.
Herberg was crowned homecoming royalty along with Christian Belz on Monday night at coronation. They were chosen out of ten individuals elected for homecoming court this year.
“I am pumped, excited and truly honored to be homecoming royalty this year,” Herberg said.
Pamphlets will be available during the week and a full agenda of events and activities happening around campus is available on concordiacollege.com.
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