This past Monday, Oct. 21, 2019, the Office of Residential Student Services hosted an event in Rogers Hall's Community Center called "Melt It Out," where residents sat down and created their own melted crayon art to relieve stress from midterm exams.

It is easy for students to become anxious and worried amid exams.

A student may experience exam stress because:

• They are concerned about how they will perform
• They feel unprepared
• They haven't spent enough time studying the exam's material
• They must achieve a specific result to get into another course or career
• They feel pressured to succeed by family, peers, and educators
• They have difficulty retaining a mass amount of information

"Melt It Out was an opportunity for residents to take a break from schoolwork, helping them to meet everyone in the community and have fun," said Maura De Palma, a residential assistant in Rogers Hall who hosted the event. Residents were able to take their creations home after it concluded.

Melt It Out is one of many events the Office of Residential Student Services hosts around the campus to have residents come together and engage in convivial activities.

It can be a challenge for residents to enjoy themselves in their communities because they have different priorities to handle, such as classes and work. Some might not even be aware of the events going on because either there isn't enough promotion, or residents are simply too busy to engage in anything.

Rogers' Community Center was filled with enthusiastic residents sitting at a table in the corner, creating their own melted crayon designs on small canvasses.

Newspapers and various artistic items such as pencils, markers, blank canvasses and boxes of crayons cluttered the entire table.

The process of a creating melted crayon art began with a blank canvas. On it, a design was drawn with a black Sharpie marker. Residents drew their own designs such as a city skyline, a heart, fat letters and even an ocean wave.

Several crayons were picked from the pile and had their wrappers peeled off so when the crayons were actually melted, they would drip smoothly across the canvas.

The crayons would be sliced in half with a small knife and were agglutinated to the canvas through the use of a hot glue gun.

To complete the process, a hairdryer would be used to melt the crayons across the canvas. The heat from the hairdryer melted the crayons enough for the colors to begin running down the canvas.

This would take several minutes to finish. Runoff from the crayons dried at a quick rate.

Residents were overjoyed by their creations and left the community center with smiles on their faces. Students looking to find more information about the Office of Residential Student Services and what it offers can visit their web page on the Kean website or call the Office of Residential Student Services at (908) 737-6800 if they have any questions. For more upcoming events like this held by the office for resident students, check out Cougar Link.