Bob Jones University students spend much of their weekends focused on relaxation and spending time with the people in their lives on campus and in the greater Greenville area.
Duncan Weniger, a senior biblical counseling major, loves creating content to entertain students. “My favorite thing to do on the weekends is to hang out with my roommates and record our ‘Good Morning BJU’ episodes,” he said. “Good Morning BJU” is a Monday morning show on Instagram that focuses on humor in the lives of students through the lens of BJU culture.
Weniger also enjoys his work on campus. “I work at Cuppa Jones, and I’d say behind the bar is one of my favorite hangout spots [on the weekends],” Weniger said. “I love watching people encouraging other people and watching people socialize over cups of coffee.”
Town students also have their own ways of connecting with the campus on the weekends.
Jose Cruz Rivera, a junior Spanish major, likes to slow down from the busyness of life on the weekends. “My favorite thing to do on the weekends is sleep, but … normally, now I work, and I can’t sleep quite as much as I would like,” he said. “When I’m not at work, I like to hang out with my friends mainly on campus and play games.”
Photo: Melia Covington
BJU students also enjoy many adventures off campus.
“I am a town student but actually hang out more with dorm students than town students, which is interesting,” Rivera said. “Our main hangout spot [off campus] would definitely be downtown Greenville around Liberty Bridge.”
Danielle Boyle, a senior orchestral instrumental performance major, greatly enjoys her weekends on campus. “My favorite thing to do on the weekends is to hang out with friends,” she said. “I love to see the sunrises at Bald Rock [in Zirconia, NC], and I love going to coffee shops to study.”
Boyle regularly represents the University across the country on the weekends. “I travel a lot for the Pettit team, and so that’s what I do on the weekends a lot,” Boyle said. “Normally we just travel on Sunday, but this time we’re going on Saturday. If we go the day before [a concert], Dr. Pettit tries to do something fun. He’s awesome.”
Boyle said Dr. Pettit prioritizes taking the students to see something unique to the area, such as the beach or the mountains.
Photo: Melia Covington
When Weniger isn’t working on his social media accounts, he plans some outdoor adventures. “[One weekend] we went over to Raven Falls, and our worst mistake was that we thought we had found a shortcut on the map to get back, … but it was actually much longer than we thought,” Weniger said. “It was so bad because we ran out of water. … On a scale from one to 10, we were nine—dying.”
Weniger admitted he was actually without water for only a couple of hours.
Brinly Tekiele, a freshman visual studies major, wasted no time jumping into weekend experiences outside of Greenville. “There was one time at the beginning of the semester that me and my friends went to [Lake] Keowee to go cliff jumping,” Tekiele said. “It wasn’t terribly high, but it was high enough to where I was scared. It was so much fun. We kind of got lost. We just walked up the hill until we found a road or trail to find our way back to civilization.”