Raising school spirit can be done a number of different ways. Pep rallies, sporting events, and Homecoming are the classics. Now, a group of Bradley freshmen have taken a new route: YouTube.
The group’s series of videos, “The Dorm Life,” available at thedormlife.com, are meant to increase school spirit on campus.
“This site is made to get people to know each other, to help groups out and to get the Brave pride bumpin’,” said freshman cellular and molecular biology major Jacob Abou-Hanna. “I mean, I only went to two basketball games last semester.”
The group includes Abou-Hanna, freshman accounting major Mike Costello, freshman music business major Nathaniel Coutteau and freshman entrepreneurship major Christopher Jackson.
The site was created after the group made a Christmas video for their friends that received good feedback, according to Abou-Hanna. After considering making more videos, Abou-Hanna made the decision over spring break.
“I bought the domain name over spring break, made the website, worked on it when I was bored, then surprised the group when we came back,” he said.
“The Dorm Life” has released eight videos so far, which include interviews with members of Hypnotiq and the men’s tennis team, as well as an election episode featuring interviews with the candidates for Student Body President.
Abou-Hanna says the group has plans on doing more episodes on issues, like sex education, as well as episodes focusing on what is happening on campus.
Costello said production times on each video can vary greatly depending on the content.
“The BU Dance Marathon one took like three hours of videotaping and about four hours of editing,” he said. “It all depends on how long the video is supposed to be. A short episode video can take around 30 minutes of video taping and around an hour of editing.”
Both Costello and Jackson describe the dance marathon video as their favorite.
“It was the unknown of getting people to dance and see the final outcome that made it fun to make,” Costello said.
“I still laugh every time I see it,” he said. “I don’t think there’s one thing I would change about it and I was proud to be part of it.”
Abou-Hanna said they have not been contacted by Bradley about the videos, but are considering working with the school to help promote events and initiatives. Interactive media and marketing majors have offered to help improve the videos and make the group’s presence more widely known across campus.
“I have no idea what the future of the site is,” he said. “We go day-by-day. But we enjoy meeting all the people, and wouldn’t mind doing this for a while.”
