By: Anne Nelson, Enrique Medel, and Joshua Rodriguez | Publish Date: September 22, 2026
Along Cougar Walk at Kean University, Union, tables are lined up with free items: Cards of K-pop idols, lunchboxes, USB-C chargers, sweet treats, Pokémon cards, backpacks, and more. These are all given away by various clubs, programs, and departments trying to catch the interest of students searching for their space during Kean Day 2026 on September 11.
Kean Day was established and hosted for the first time in September 2013. At the time, students were required to attend if they were taking GE*1000, a course for welcoming and familiarizing new students with the campus. Today, it is an event for showcasing what Kean has to offer to all its students, not just newcomers, in a more impactful environment.
“It’s kinda like a little taste test to a lot of the things you might be interested in,” Kimora Givens says, a graphic design major who was tabling for Cougar’s Byte. “It kind of takes (away) the pressure of just showing up to one of the clubs’ events. You get to talk to them first at their table and they can tell you about it before you just jump in.”
Through this, Givens became interested, even as a senior, in a church club on campus that she is considering attending. Most clubs, including the church club that sparked Givens interest, breaks the ice just by tabling. However, the Dungeon and Dragons (D&D) club takes a more unconventional approach. They break the ice with students in the unique manner of having a few members dress up as D&D classes.
“It definitely gets people interested and like, ‘What in the world is this?’” said CJ Petersen, a graduate pursuing a master’s in English writing studies and the secretary of the D&D club. “In previous years, (students) would come to (our first meeting) and be like ‘Oh, the wizard brought me here.’ Hopefully now they say our knight brought them here because we don’t have our wizard anymore.”
Petersen highlighted that Kean Day is effective for getting people interested in clubs, but that the D&D club can struggle with retaining members because they have their first meeting on the same day as Kean Day.
D&D is a game that requires a considerable amount of time so that it can be completed by the end of the semester. Despite these circumstances, Petersen says that they have found that word-of-mouth really helps with getting new, consistent members.
Liani Eorio-Wilson, a sophomore in English education from South Plainfield, likes to visit every table at Kean Day for this very reason. She makes friends with a lot of freshmen and transfer students, and they often go to her when they have questions about what Kean has. So, it makes it easier for her to help them by attending Kean Day.
Wilson also uses this event as practice for her future job.
“I’m going to be working in the office of the dean of education,” Wilson explains. “So, it can also help (as practice for when) a student comes in looking for a certain thing. Even if it’s not in the office, I can hopefully help them with that—direct them to where they need to go.”
There is a theme of students using Kean Day as a means to figure out or pursue their fields. For example, Givens says that Cougar’s Byte is currently hiring graphic designers, writers, and more. They intertwined this at Kean Day by showing interested students what they would do in those sorts of jobs and how that translates into a position at Cougar’s Byte.
Jazlyn Ruiz, a senior communications major from Perth Amboy, encourages students to look into every department carefully during Kean Day so that they find a like-minded community where they can do what they love.
“When I started, I also felt stuck back in 2025 when looking for employment,” Ruiz says. “You have to find a place that shares the same value you hold for your career.”
Sherwin Prince, a Newark-based senior majoring in Computer Science, furthered Ruiz’s statement.
“If you want something at Kean, you can find it somewhere,” Prince said. “(Kean Day) shows the diversity that Kean has, not just culturally but also ideologically. We got a bunch of comp-sci clubs, sociology clubs, (and) different cultural clubs. There’s just so (many) things to offer that, no matter what part of the world from, you’re going to have a place to resonate with (at Kean).”
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