Freshman Students Tour Jelly Belly for Off-Campus Fun

This article was written for my Fall 2009 Writing  for the Media 1 course. The Trinity Digest staff liked it and published it as a guest entry on October 2, 2009. 


Freshman Trinity students  from Johnson Hall and Carlson Hall had a chance to feel like kids again, as they hopped aboard a small train and toured the Jelly Belly Candy Company Visitor Center on Saturday.

The students toured the Jelly Belly Visitor Center as a brother/sister floor activity. Upon entering the store each student was adorned with a Jelly Belly hat and given free jelly beans. Students then rode the "Jelly Belly Express" through a warehouse of 4.5 billion jelly beans. Through watching many short video  clips, students learned about the history of the company, and how Jelly Beans are made, a process which can take up to five days.

Students also observed the "Jelly Belly Art Gallery." The art gallery consisted of jelly bean mosaics of popular historical figures, including a 1980 mosaic of Ronald Reagan, whose favorite candy was the jelly bean. After the tour, students chose from over 50 flavors to sample or purchase. Many students were disappointed to find the "belly flops," irregularly shaped or mismatched jelly beans, out of stock.

"It was cool learning how the food scientists make the different flavors, especially the more difficult ones," said Resident Assistant Natalie Elzinga. To make a new jelly bean flavor, food scientists take the original substance containing the flavor they want, and compare it to their duplicate flavor until the two balance. This process can take up to six months.

"The purpose of brother/sister floor activities is so that one suite can interact with residents from a different suite in a non-intimidating way," said Resident Assistant Cora Looney. "We chose this activity because it was fun and low expense."

Brother/sister floor activities are organized by Resident Assistants, and are not school funded. Each resident pays their "suite dues," which help fund the activities. Resident Assistants try to plan a brother/sister floor activity for each month.

"I like off-campus brother/sister floor activities, because they really do help to get to know people better," said sophomore Kristy Sorenson.
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