SWAT brings back Mall of America Trip

By Suyaishar Sebastian

The Student Warrior Activities Team (SWAT) organizes the Mall of America trip twice a year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the trip was discouraged since the spring of 2020. However, SWAT brought back the Mall of America trip on April 11.

The trip was chaperoned by Sharese Hall, the Director of Student Life, who said that there were almost 30 people who attended the trip. Hall has chaperoned the Mall of America trip multiple times before this this and said she was happy to do it again.

“We had a mixture of groups that attended,” Hall said. “The last time I chaperoned was with Hallie Erdahl, the previous student activities director, and that was when we took two buses to the Mall of America and we were on one bus each.”

Starr George, a freshman communications major said this was her first SWAT Mall of America trip and she really enjoyed it.

“This is important because we as students need time to de-stress from weeks of crazy loads of work and have a little fun,” George said.  

There were concerns regarding COVID-19, but students who went to the Mall of America trip claimed to have followed COVID-19 guidelines.

“It was safe in my opinion because we followed protocols to keep ourselves safe, but I was kind of scared, especially in the food court where a lot of people were not wearing masks, which made me feel a little uncomfortable,” George said.

“It was great because we did not fill the bus; we had like 50 seats, but only almost 30 went so they were all spread out and sit with the people in their bubble.” Hall said. “We had everyone still wear a mask and the bus driver said he had the ability to open the windows, so it was pretty safe.”