From Ukrainian egg decorating to beer tasting; murder mystery to Pilates, this year’s Winterim workshops gave students the chance break out of their usual routines.

Winterim, which took place from Friday, Jan. 18 through Sunday, Jan. 20, is an annual event sponsored by ASWC Programming in which students and staff are able to lead and attend workshops outside of traditional curriculum.

“What impressed me most was the diversity of the actual workshops,” said sophomore Nadim Damluji. As ASWC programming chair, Damluji was responsible for organizing and overseeing the event and making sure that everything ran smoothly.

Damluji started planning halfway through the first semester. According to Damluji, the beginning steps of the process involved announcing a general callout for applications and then presenting the received applications to the programming committee, wherein it was decided which workshops could be realistically sponsored.

Damluji arranged the approved workshops into a comprehensive schedule over the three days and booked the rooms that the leaders requested. He then made certain that the event and sign-ups were well-publicized, so that the workshops could be well-attended.

Workshops are financed by ASWC Programming. Workshop leaders propose the estimated cost of running their workshop, and accepted applicants are given the appropriate funds.

“We have a specific budget for Winterim, but this year we requested even more funds for Winterim because we felt really passionately about a lot of the workshops: we wanted to make sure that they happened,” said Damluji. “We thought they’d be great opportunities for the student body, and I think it’s an especially good use of the student body money.”

About 25 workshops took place over the three days, in classrooms, on campus, in Walla Walla and beyond.

Students explored telemark skiing, light sculpture creation, country music appreciation, scavenger hunting and Asian culinary skills, among others.

“We took about 20 kids and went down to the Ice Chalet in town. We spent the beginning of the workshop teaching the basics in skating, then played some games and had a free skate,” said junior Erin Morris, who led an ice-skating workshop with sophomore Kali Stoehr.
Winterim also offered workshop leaders the chance to gain experience in instruction and leadership. Both Morris, who coaches youth hockey, and Stoehr, who teaches community ice-skating classes, have experience in skating instruction.

Stoehr and Morris both recommend putting on a workshop to anyone who is interested.
“If there’s something that you’re excited about, most likely there’s someone else on campus that is excited about it too,” said Stoehr. “So go for it.”

The prospect of meeting new people was what prompted first-year Ryan Lum to sign up for a “Learn to Play Go” workshop.

“On Saturday, a few friends and I walked over to the Ultimate House, where the workshop was held. We were taught how to play Go [a strategic board game], and we drank tea,” said Lum. “I liked meeting the upperclassmen and interacting with them. It was nice for them because they got to interact with the first-years that they wouldn’t have met otherwise.”