By Chelsey Schweitzer 

Senior Staff Writer

CSUSM students and faculty kicked off the spring semester with a campus wide celebration of the University’s 25th anniversary.

The Prowl, a scavenger hunt that took place from Jan. 27 to 28, encouraged students to explore the campus and earn free prizes along the way.

“[We wanted to] encourage all (student and employee) participants to learn about department ‘student oriented’ services and their locations,” 25th anniversary Chairperson, Tina Bell, said.

The event included 25 student service offices to visit such as Craven Hall, the USU, the UVA and the Clarke Field House.

“The committee wanted the locations to be of interest to most students (first year to graduates), whatever their major/minor,” Bell said.

Upon arriving at each location, students would be greeted by a staff member who would tell them about some of the services offered at that site and any upcoming events to be on the lookout for. Afterwards, they would mark the corresponding number on the students’ scavenger hunt cards and send them off with some prizes associated with the location or the school itself.

Students picked up their scavenger hunt cards at the USU info desk, which included the 25 different locations to visit around campus and a bag to carry anything they collected along the way. Participants ended their Prowl journey at the Alumni Office and turned in their scavenger hunt cards there.

According to Bell, over 700 students and faculty members participated in the Prowl and they were able to learn more about the campus as a result.

“I saw an online Facebook post [about the Prowl] and thought it looked like a fun way to get involved on campus,” third-year student, Sarah Jacot, said.

Through the Prowl, students were able to learn about student services that they may not have taken advantage of otherwise, and discover places on campus that they did not know existed or had never been to before.

“[It was interesting to] go into the [new] Veteran’s Center for the first time,” fourth-year student, Javier Enriquez, said.

Those who participated in The Prowl not only learned more about the campus and all it has to offer, but they also gained the opportunity to win various prizes. In addition to the free prizes at each location, the participants were entered into a drawing to win over $4,000 in prizes which included items like parking permits, an iPad Air and Disneyland Park Hopper Tickets. In addition, students could take selfies at 10 designated locations and post them using the hashtag #csusm25 on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, for the opportunity to win one of 10 Starbucks gift cards.

The Prowl, which was only the first of a yearlong series of activities and events to mark the 25th anniversary of the school, served as an engaging and informative way to kick off the spring semester for many students on campus.