Students were given the opportunity to go back to a simpler time on Wednesday, jamming out to some 90s music, coloring or playing hopscotch. 

Students from a section of Honors 251: Citizen & Self held Pre-K for a Day on Centennial Mall. Honors 

251 is a required class for students enrolled in the Honors College. Students in the class study the concepts of citizenship, democracy and community.

Students who attended were able to recapture that kindergarten spirit by blowing bubbles, playing corn hole, molding Play-Doh, coloring and partaking in many other familiar childhood activities. Louisville freshman Amanda Selvage said her interest was captured by the hopscotch and the potential for face painting. 

“I love doing this stuff. I love coloring. I think this is a great way to de-stress everybody,” Selvage said. 

Gallatin, Tennessee freshman Brittany Ward said the idea for their project developed early on in class. When they began brainstorming about problems that affected Bowling Green and the country at large, anxiety amongst college students was brought up. She said the support for the project was overwhelming, and everyone decided to take up the issue as a project.

“Every single person in our class made anxiety their No. 1 or No. 2 choice, so it was an overwhelming decision to go with it,” Ward said. 

From there, Ward said her class of eight other students broke off into groups to get an academic perspective of anxiety. She said groups studied the physiological affects of anxiety, gender roles and sexuality, emotional support animals and anxiety and anxiety in college students. She said the group’s extensive research led them to a surprising conclusion.

“Our research through interviewing students on campus and looking through journal articles online showed the week before finals is actually the most stressful,” she said.

Independence freshman Molly Couch is one of the students involved with the project. She said the groups project restructured the typical format of the class so they could collectively try to offer students a form of alleviation before finals week. She said the project is meant to offer a little bit of time for students to not have to think about exams, studying or worrying about what they have to do next. 

“We wanted to recapture the spirit of kindergarten and preschool where you didn’t have so much stuff to worry about,” Couch said. 

Ward said they also passed out information about how to cope with anxiety, and the group also worked with the Counseling and Testing Center on this to assure they were taking the appropriate steps. Ward said her biggest hope for the project was to give students the opportunity to experience the good old days when everything was a little more stress free.

“It’s kind of a sense of nostalgia, and it’s really a break in people’s everyday cycle,” she said.