Family and friends gathered on Tower Lawn of San José State University to catch a viewing of  “Inside Out 2” underneath the stars on Wednesday. 

San José State’s Student Involvement, Student Union Inc. and Associated Students collaborate to host “Family Movie Night on the Lawn.”

Jess Prudent, Student Involvement campus programming coordinator, said she helped organize the event as she does every spring and fall semester during the Weeks of Welcome events. 

Weeks of welcome occur during the first couple weeks of each semester which include various programs and events to help students get back into the swing of things through support and community of SJSU, according to the student involvement web page. 

“Our events can only have our funding go back to the students (so) we make sure this is one of those spaces —  we do our best to make sure it goes right back to you,” said Prudent. “Sometimes we have these exceptions, where we know it’s going to be a benefit to our students, to make an exception.”

Prudent is a University of California, Santa Cruz graduate who decided to come to SJSU to pursue an organization that had more Black leadership than her previous institution. 

“We do events like these because it is really hard for students their first year on campus… especially being a commuter school as well it gets even harder to connect,” Prudent said.

Prudent said when it came to the movie choice, Student Involvement did a poll and around 98% chose Inside Out 2.

“We plan this event way back in May and once the semester starts we put out the poll on our Instagram,” Prudent said.

Inside Out 2 was released in theaters during summer on June 14th,2024 which received exceptional reviews from critics, according to an Akron Children’s article. 

While in theaters it finished at the box office with a total of $1.6 billion, showing that it is a favorite for many families and kids, according to a Screen Rant article.

Inside Out 2 is the  sequel to the first movie, Inside Out (2015), which focuses on a young girl named Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) who is dealing with the five emotions of Joy( voiced by amy poehler), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Anger (voiced by Lewis Black) , Fear (voiced by Tony Hale) and Disgust (voiced by Liza Lapira). 

In the sequel, Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman) is now a teenager and all the emotions have to figure out how to deal with new emotions including Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) , Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser).. 

At the event, free blankets were handed out to the first 50 guests who checked in to use during the showing, according to SJSU student involvement Instagram page.

Free Kona shaved ice was also given to event attendees on Tower Lawn.

Emma Johnston, a second year aviation student, attended “Family Movie Night on the Lawn” with her friends.

“This is my first time at an event like this,” Johnston said. “I heard about this event through my residential advisor who is a friend of mine.” 

The movie began at 7 p.m., allowing plenty of time for students and their guests to get situated on chairs and blankets. 

Mitansh Gor, a general engineering graduate student, attended the event.

“I heard about this event the first couple days when I first got here because it is my first semester at SJSU,” Gor said. “ I directly found out about this event throughout the SJSU application process.”