Pace University’s upperclassmen students went to Kessel Student Center to participate in the Underclassmen Takeover event on Friday night. The wide variety of free activities that were offered ranged from releasing lanterns over Choate Pond to customizing pillow-stuffed emojis.

“A lot of the programs that we have are catered to first-year students and it’s wonderful because it’s important for first-year students to feel welcome here,” said Graduate Assistant for campus-wide programming, Nick Wang. “But upperclassmen need to be involved as well. So having an event dedicated to just upperclassmen, I think, is very special.”

In the floor upstairs above the cafeteria, a game room was available to upperclassmen as well, which included activities such as Spikeball, Cornhole, and Nintendo Wii. However, out of all of the activities that were offered in the beginning of the night, students appeared to have taken more of an interest in the Stuff-An-Emoji Pillows activity.

“I loved it,” said Graduate Pace student Edwin Rodriguez. “I think it was cool that students had the chance to make [the emojis] themselves versus just getting it.”

There were numerous kinds of emojis that were available for pillow-stuffing. Many of the students were seen carrying the popular “winky-face” emoji on their way out of the room where they customized them.

However, on their way out, even more students were seen waiting on a long line throughout Kessel to make the emojis and it wasn’t until more than an hour later that the waiting line noticeably shortened.

“I did find it interesting to see a diverse amount of students there,” Rodriguez said. “[Students ranged] from sophomores all the way up to graduate students.”

This event was started last year and Wang is pleased with the turnout of this year’s event so far.

“This event is recent,” Wang said. “This is only the second year we’ve been doing this and it’s a bigger turnout than last year.”

After the Stuff-An-Emoji Pillows activity, students gathered around Choate Pond to release lanterns into the sky together.

“The Stuff-An-Emoji Pillows [activity] and releasing the lanterns over Choate Pond [were the most popular,” Wang said. “I think the lanterns release brought more people to work together in order for the lanterns to work and float into the sky.”

Rodriguez participated in most of the activities that the event offered and seemed very content with everything.

“This event meant a lot because I was happy to see the huge turnout from our upperclassmen students along with the activities that were present,” said Rodriguez. “The activities I went to all seemed good [and] I wouldn’t have replaced any.”