Students at Long Beach City College were welcomed back to the fall semester on Sept. 10 with a build-your-own cereal bowl event hosted by the Pride Lounge.
Students were greeted by a table full of different cereal boxes and different toppings to customize their bowls.
Attendees were invited to sit around a table, introduce themselves and tell everyone a little bit about their interests, their background and identity.
Despite it being the first time in the lounge for some of the attendees, nobody shied away and all the attendees helped spark the icebreaker conversations that lasted the entire 2 hours the event ran.
“It’s pretty welcoming, you know, definitely met a lot of new people and potentially great friends,” said Isabella Gonzales, a first year student at LBCC.
Chris Garcia, one of the organizers of the event and the Student Affairs Program Coordinator says “it’s amazing knowing that the lounge can provide a safe space for queer students on campus.”
The cereal bowl event was the second of a series of four welcome back events organized by the lounge for the month of September, with an ice cream social on Sept. 3rd being the first.
“Most of the people hadn’t been here before so it was cool to see new faces, like over 40 people came to the event,” Garcia said.
Student Affairs Program Coordinator, Chris Garcia, enjoys cereal while welcoming students to the BYO Cereal Bowl event on September 10th. The event brought LGBTQ+ students and allies together to connect in a welcoming, affirming space. (Jocelyn Cortez-Garcia)
There was a wide range of cereal types at the lounge, including Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms and more.
Students were also encouraged to add extra toppings such as shaved almonds, marshmallows, sprinkles, and had multiple milk options to choose from including whole, soy and almond.
“I feel like in a way I’m giving back to my closeted gay self from when I was in undergrad, because I didn’t have a space like the lounge here, so it’s amazing knowing I can give back”, Garcia said.
The lounge is only open on Thursdays from 2 p.m.- 4 p.m., though students wish it was open more throughout the week.
“The lounge should be open longer instead of just one day because we do have a huge LGBTQ community on campus”, said Jessica Gonzales, another first year student. “it should be open at least a few times a week, and I feel like that would be good because it is a very welcoming place”.
Despite only being open a couple hours a week, the lounge will continue holding events centered around queer identity and issues throughout the month of September and the rest of the semester.
“Every Thursday I’ll have something for them and they’ll either be aimed at building community or educating about some of the queer challenges of the past”, said Garcia.
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