The Student Alumni Association’s 2nd annual “I Heart Biola” week kicked off today in celebration of Biola’s 112th anniversary. The event-filled week began today, starting with a booth where students wrote appreciation letters for faculty and staff, and will end Thursday. 

“[We’re] just appreciating the work, all the behind-the-scenes stuff that doesn’t always get recognized,” said junior art major and SAA’s experience designer Tyffani Jensen.

This week, SAA aims to encourage students and faculty to appreciate each other. Tomorrow, SAA will hand out cupcakes for Biola’s 112th birthday and stickers near the Bell Tower after Tuesday morning chapel. On Wednesday, the association will host a movie night to promote diversity on campus, according to Estefania Olivares, a junior communication sciences and disorders major and SAA’s social media coordinator. They will be showing “Wonder,” a movie about a child born with facial deformities who struggles to find acceptance in public school. 

The week will conclude on Thursday with a collaboration between SAA and the Student Missionary Union during the missions pop-up booths and boba event at 8 p.m. to 10 p.m near the Fireplace Pavilion. There will be a variety of products and boba sold at the pop-up shops to support student mission trips.

SAA is also hosting a limited-edition T-shirt contest. Five winners will be chosen every day of I Heart Biola week. Students can enter the giveaway by posting a video of why they “heart” Biola on their Instagram stories and tagging SAA with the hashtag #whyiheartbiola, winners will be chosen at random. SAA will also be giving away a Hydro Flask, Biola sweatshirt and other items at their Thursday night event.

“We just want to celebrate the students and the faculty and the staff at Biola for all the hard work that we do and just have a fun week,” Olivares said.

In the midst of I Heart Biola week, the Enrollment, Marketing and Communications department is hosting its 10th annual Tweet Hunt. Participants will be able to find different prizes throughout campus, with the grand prize being an Amazon Echo Dot. Students can follow Biola on Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram to receive hints for the week-long scavenger hunt.