Raychel Payne: Center for Student Activities Week 2

Activities:

• Continued planning two College Ready events: 
• Created ice-breakers for the opening event
• Ordered catering and met with Event Services to coordinate set-up
• Communicated with the graduate student coordinator on event details throughout the week
• Began coordinating volunteers for College Ready move-in day
• Helped to facilitate two more student organization fairs for freshman orientation
• Assisted the student group Music Maker Productions in promoting their organization
• Performed set-up and tear-down for both events
• Tested the online ticket purchasing process for the Lyceum Series events this year
• Contacted several Starkville businesses about receiving marketing materials for CSA events throughout this academic year
• Research and develop leadership programs and ideas for student organizations to possible participate in throughout the year

Experience:

The second week with the Center for Student Activities was even better than the first. I feel as though I am getting to know the students and professional in this office and fitting in well. The office is very collaborative and we all help each other out as much as we can. My supervisor and I are working on many projects together, but I am also working on projects with the assistant director and coordinator of the office. What I enjoy most about working for this office is that no day is the same. Everyday we are working on projects in different ways or in a different setting. I also get to interact with students regularly. So far I have met some amazing campus leaders and I am excited to see how the projects I am working on play out this academic year.

The main thing that my supervisor and I have been working on are two upcoming events for a program called College Ready. This program invited 160 college freshman to come to campus for the last 5 weeks of summer and begin classes early. The students who are attending this year seem to be very bright and driven to get involved with campus. Our job at student activities is to help coordinate their first program to get them invested in the non-academic side of the experience. We are creating ice-breakers and an opening banquet for the student to participate in to get to know their fellow new students. I had some perspective on all that goes in to planning an event like this, but my supervisor gave me the opportunity to be the main point of contact for these first events for the College Ready program. This upcoming week will include a lot of follow up with catering and event services to make sure everything is ready to go by the day of the event.

The other experience I want to reflect on from this past week is working with Music Maker Productions. This student organization does all of the production for the concerts held on campus throughout the year. I stayed with them at their booth for the organization fair for orientation on Thursday. I think it is really incredible that the students get to gain real experience in the music industry. The students have the freedom to produce the events independently. Of course the advise assists as much as needed, but the student chose the artist, create all of the marketing materials, sell tickets and do the artist relations the day of the event. If  it would have been available at my undergraduate institution, I would have applied to be in Music Maker Productions.