External Affairs Director Maleny Crispo started Thursday’s Student Alliance meeting at Grand Rapids Community College by introducing Chris Remley, the new Student Life office manager.
Remley talked about his role in Student Life, and how he can help students and student groups with budgets and more. He also spoke about why he chose to work at GRCC.
“I really love that it’s open access,” Remley said. “I love students, I love interacting with you all.”
Molly Maczka, who was the former Student Life office manager, died in Oct. 2016.
The meeting then turned its focus to Graham Sniesak, who gave a surprise speech for the day and gave the students advice based on an article he recently read, and he talked about how students can improve their organizations. He spoke about how everything has to do with mindset, and how to improve one’s mindset with three steps. “Understand your vision,” “focus”, and “energy” were the main topics he talked about.
After the speech, Operations Director Kyezie Bwanangela turned the meeting’s focus to a game for the entire group to interact in. Each individual was asked to write three random words on a piece of paper and all of the papers were placed in the middle of the room. Students could then volunteer and pick up a piece of paper and make up a story with the three words, and the rest of the group would have to try to guess what the three words were after listening to the story.
When the game was finished, Director of Student Life and Conduct Lina Blair made several announcements to the group.
GRCC is hosting the Young Women’s Strong Leader’s Conference from 8:30-2 p.m. on March 24. Signups are available on OrgSync, and the cost is $25 per attendee. The conference is statewide.
RVSPs for the Student Leadership Banquet are due by next Friday, March 24. The Student Leadership Banquet is from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5, on the second floor of the L.V. Eberhard Center 301 W Fulton Street. Anyone is welcome to attend.
The Be Nice club is hosting a fundraiser on Wednesday, March 22 and will be selling t-shirts and bracelets. The Be Nice club is a mental health organization that encourages kindness towards all GRCC students, staff, faculty, and all people in general. Contact the club’s treasurer Cristian Barajas for more information.
Blair also encouraged students who will be walking at commencement in April to attend GradFest on April 4.
“GradFest is the place where you can go… to get all your (graduation) business taken care of,” Blair said.
The meeting was then adjourned. SA president Jose Garcia said he wanted Thursday’s meeting to be more laid back.
“(It) was a more inspirational meeting,” Garcia said. “We got to hear other people’s stories and take some time and relax.”