Campus Events

Looking back, I realize that I have been involved in campus events for around ten years now. That's almost a third of my life!

It started back in the fall of 1998 with the Residence Hall Association at Case Western Reserve University. I became an officer in the organization at the end of my freshman year, and my first big event to help with was Casino Night the following fall. I also helped with outdoor movies, Halloween parties for local kids, and SpringFest, which was one of my favorites.

I did take a year off between undergrad and grad school, but I was back working on events in no time when I was hired as a graduate assistant in Student Activities at the University of Dayton. You can lose track of all the events working in Student Activities, but I really enjoyed so many of them.

After working for two years in Student Activities at the University of Texas at San Antonio, I was ready for a change. The Campus Activities Board put on almost 50 events a year while I was their advisor, and I was tired. I really enjoyed working with the students, but I was ready to switch gears into academic advising.

Within two month of working at the Colleges' Freshman Advising Center, I was back to helping with an event. They needed help with the Sophomore Transition Fair, which has now grown into Sophomore Day.

When the first UTSA Advising Conference was being planned, I volunteered for that committee. I had no idea that I'd be co-chairing the second annual conference. After nine months of hard work, we had a successful conference yesterday with approximately 225 attendees for all over Texas (and a few from out-of-state). We actually had to turn away attendees because we had maxed-out our reserved spaces. The conference attendance grew by 17% in one year and could have grown more. I have been so fortunate to work with an outstanding co-chair and committee. It really is the people that make an event.

I think that yesterday was more than just the culmination of nine months of work but really ten years of experiences. I may not want to plan events for my entire job, but I realize that I still want to be involved in a few.