Pegasus Palooza welcomes incoming students with weeklong celebration

As school starts next week and thousands of freshmen invade UCF’s campus, the university will hold its annual Pegasus Palooza, the official welcome week for new freshmen and all returning UCF students.

Pegasus Palooza starts tomorrow and ends on Sunday, August 26. The week is filled with a variety of events that range from concerts to workshops, all sponsored by various UCF resource centers.

Things kick off on Saturday with the Target Back to School Shopping Event and LINK Launch and closes with the Knight-Thon 5K event. This year there are more workshops and informational sessions sponsored by resource centers such as Career Services, the Multicultural Student Center and the Student Union that will help inform freshmen about campus resources and provide them with opportunities to become involved at UCF. 

The office of First Year Experience plays a big role in putting on many of the week's events and organizing Pegasus Palooza. The student executive board, which is in charge of organizing the event, works through FYE to contact various organizations on campus to host, sponsor, and donate to this week. 

Christian Hernandez, a senior psychology major and the student director of Pegasus Palooza 2012, has focused a lot this year not just on marketing but also on targeting students through various social media outlets like Twitter and Instagram. He hopes that this week will serve as a fun, social week that will also help students become better acclimated with the campus.

“If I see students wearing the Pegasus Palooza shirts around campus, if I know they came out to the events and had fun at them, I’d be happy. I would know we were successful,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez looks forward to a great turn-out this year. He said last year around a total of 31,000 students attended the various events throughout the week; this year, he looks forward to seeing an upward of 40,000 students. 

Most of the main events, which include CAB Concert, CAB Comedy and Knight Rave, will take place in the UCF Arena. Campus Activities Board is another big sponsor of a number of events throughout the week. 

Drew Ulloa, a sophomore accounting major and the CAB Cinema Director, also looks forward to this busy week ahead for CAB. Ulloa was in charge of putting together the CAB Cinema screening of “The Hunger Games,” which will take place on Monday in the UCF Arena. He too is excited and hoping that the CAB events, like CAB Concert and Comedy, will max out the arena.

“We hope that they [freshmen] will notice that it is an enjoyable experience, and we work really hard to put these events together for them and will take that to either get involved with us or to come out to events later in the year,” Ulloa said.

Another big event that took place last year for the first time was Knight Rave, which Hernandez looks most forward to this year because of its prior success. Knight Rave is a huge dance party that takes place in the UCF Arena with local DJs playing house, techno, and popular music. It is a night full of black-lights, glow sticks and fun. DJ Brian “Docta” Dawe, a local DJ who plays at various venues around Orlando and at UCF events, looks forward to DJing at this event for the first time.

“I really look forward to playing a high energy, electronic dance music set in a large venue like the UCF arena,” Dawe said.

Brian Tewes, a junior Business Management major who attended a variety of Pegasus Palooza events last year, said Knight Rave was his favorite.

“I thought having one big dance party was a great idea, especially because dance music is getting so popular with our age group. I expect this year’s Knight Rave and the rest of the events to be even bigger; there is only room for improvement,” Tewes said.

Other events set to happen during the week include the Knight v. Food challenge at Wackadoo’s, the first Late Knights event for the fall semester and also a couple of events put on by the Multicultural Student Center (Taste of UCF and the Cultural Dance Party). Students looking to find out more about Pegasus Palooza can pick up event guidebooks in several offices on campus, including SGA, Career Services, FYE, Transfer and Transition Services, OSI and the Multicultural Student Center.