ANGELINA DOHRE
Photo Editor
A new semester brings new opportunities for Fredonia students. The Office of Campus Life has developed weekly Student Success Workshops. These events will cover a broad range of topics that are beneficial for life during and after college.
The workshops were a new initiative started by Director of Campus Life, Mark Suida. He said the office has always facilitated workshops in leadership, community service, event planning and more.
“The Student Success workshops were specifically designed to allow students the opportunity to be exposed to workshops that focus on both personal and professional growth.”
According to Suida, Campus Life believes in holistic student development.
“In other words, these workshops can empower students to build skills and knowledge in social, emotional, physical, academic and job related areas,” he said. “By offering a menu of options, students can choose workshops that are beneficial and relevant to their needs.”
The office staff brainstormed and identified student needs. Faculty and staff were then asked to contribute and help positively impact the student experience around their key values and themes.
“Joyce Harvard Smith, Rachel Martin and the Campus Life intern, Alexis Gigliello, were instrumental in developing these workshops. I’d like to publicly acknowledge their efforts,” Suida said.
He also acknowledged how appreciative he is of the faculty and staff that are presenting workshops.
“This allows students to meet other faculty and staff that may not be a part of their inner circle. It is important for us all to go out and continually seek new knowledge and training.”
Gigliello, senior public relations major, explained her role in the workshops.
“Basically, I gave Campus Life a student perspective on what workshop topics I think students would find most interesting,” she said. “How to appeal to students, how often students would most likely be willing to come to these workshops, which locations would work best and what clubs or faculty members should execute the workshops to gain the most student interest.”
A different workshop is featured each week with no pre-registration and is free to all students. Various topics are tackled, such as professionalism, conflict management, financial management, community service and self-awareness. Service, leadership and professionalism are recurring themes.
Suida will host a workshop and focus on transformational leadership.
“This leadership theory highlights the importance of helping others become more and do more,” he said.
An analogy he sometimes uses in class to teach this type of leadership is the “great parent” concept.
“An effective parent motivates and inspires their child, but also challenges their child. They see potential in the child that a child may not see in themselves,” said Suida.
According to Gigliello, a few new topics will be explored at these workshops.
“Some important workshops that are new include the ‘Effective Event Planning and Campus Life Forms’ and the ‘Volunteer and Community Service Opportunities,’” she said.
“Those are two areas that I have personally seen clubs and individuals struggle with immensely, and although these topics are mentioned at Fall and Spring Summit, these workshops target everybody on campus instead of just e-board members.”
Suida hopes students will realize that they can learn a lot just by attending a supplemental workshop.
“Students need to create a developmental plan for themselves. What can you be doing now to stand out from the rest of applicants for a job or entrance into graduate school,” Suida said. “Fredonia has so many opportunities to engage in applied learning and campus life.”
In term of what the future holds for these workshops, they will be assessed after the semester ends to see what went well and what went wrong.
“We enjoy revising programs to meet new and different student needs and concerns,” Suida said. “I think you’ll see a version 2.0 in the future!”