Blast from th Blast from
Blast from the Past: A Look at L&C S By Jenna Shelton jshelton@lc.edu
Since the start of Lewis & Clark Community College 50 years ago student engagement has been a priority. As Student Activities President, I was excited to see all of the great photos of previous activities held on campus when I started archiving past information for The Bridge. Obviously we cannot do some of the events from the past and looking at some of the photos, I am surprised they did some of these events at all. Like, who splits apples off of students with a sword? As times have changed there has been a drive to be more inclusive and diverse in our planning of events so that more students participate, not only in the planning but, in the actual events. One thing that always piques a college students’ interest is the possibility of free food. Jared Hennings, Student Activities Coordinator for the last 15 years has come to recognize that potential crowd pleaser. Hennings said, “Throughout the years I have really focused on trying to make sure that we have some kind of free food to offer our students, whether a piece of fruit or pizza or something made by our excellent food service team.”
Hennings knows that college life is a busy and stressful time for students and wants to support students in whatever way possible. Seemingly always on the go, students can sometimes miss a meal or be stressing about school, work and life. A nice little break in the form of an event planned along with students who make up the Student Activities club can reinvigorate students who are tired. As proved from the interesting pictures from the past, Student Activities are
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challenged to continue to come up with ideas for events that are not redundant. That’s why there is such an important need for fresh minds to be involved with the planning process. That sounds easily enough, getting new people to join our group, but it isn’t. Students have their classes and they have social lives, girlfriends or boyfriends, family obligations and a job to worry about and joining a club isn’t always on their list of priorities,” Hennings responded when asked about challenges faced when planning the Student Activities events. Unlike the early days of L&C, when student activities were less frequent during the semester, Hennings tries to schedule at least one thing every week to engage students. Previously there was only one planning body for student engagement, the Student Government and Senate. Perhaps it was the regular duties of policy and other responsibilities that kept the group from planning events as often.
Another exciting Hump Day entertainment includ man cutting an apple in half with a sword!
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Student Activities has tried to host events in a virtual setting. Some have been insanely successful while others were not. It’s a hit or miss type of thing and at least we are attempting to have activities to break up the time, whether we reach 10 students or 200 students.
Top and lef dents in line delicious fre provided by Student Act Free food h ways been way to get interest.
One thing that I am extremely excited for is an upcoming virtual Murder Mystery! We will have a Christmas in July themed “Zoom party” in which a “murder” will occur. Who will be murdered and who is the murderer? Look out for further details on how to join in the whodunnit fun! For questions or comments, please contact Jenna Shelton.
History
