RLA, students mingle over mixed drinks

Students were drinking foreign holiday drinks for culture awareness at 6 p.m. Monday, in The Hub.
Resident Adviser Emily Still, 21, senior of Scottsbluff, led this event. Approximately 56 students showed up to Mixed Drinks. Students filled different sizes of mason jars with powder to make mocha hot chocolate (hot chocolate with instant coffee and chocolate chips), Mexican hot chocolate (hot chocolate with cayenne), and spiced cider.
Once students picked what to put in their jar they took a recipe telling them how to make the drink. Students decorated their jars with patterned cloth. The patterns were polka dots, chevron and saint symbols. Students also used ribbons, which were solid color or polka dotted to decorate the jars.
While students were decorating jars they were drinking one of three drinks: kinder punch (spicy German fruit punch), Blood Orange soda (Italian soda), or spiced cider.
“It’s nice being able to socialize and meet people over a nice cup of hot chocolate,” Sara Tompkins, 19, sophomore of Chadron, said. “The best part is that I get to take some home.”
“The main purpose is to raise awareness of students on Christmas drinks from other cultures,” Resident Adviser Barbra Pieper, 19, sophomore of Mitchell, said. “It’s important to raise cultural awareness because our campus is filled with students from all over, and we need to recognize it’s not just us Americans.”