Submitted by Wendy Paul
Coming into Albertus Magnus College my freshman year was, as I assume for many, a pretty scary experience. I didn’t know anyone, I had only ever been to the college campus once before for instant decision day and I felt very out of place. This, however, did not last long. Being a very small college it is easy to create an intimate and welcoming community here. Not only does the close atmosphere help, but also the helpful guidance of all the faculty and staff means a lot. Students are encouraged to take an active role in being a part of the community.
One role that I found was becoming a part of the Student Government Association. I started off as a part of their volunteer committee. Set up, clean up, putting up flyers – all that fun back stage stuff. It helped me find a place, make friends and even though at the time I didn’t see it, helped me become a leader. I loved helping out so much that I wanted to become a part of the planning too. I became a board member and became more involved in everything SGA does. I started to have a better idea of what SGA members really do.
We are here for the students and we are the students, such as any government really states “For the people by the people” so to speak. At a quick glance it seems that we just create events for students to have fun at. Well we do, but that is not all. The events we do plan are not just some random thrown together ideas. Every event is created with the students in mind, we talk to them, to get ideas, to understand what they do and don’t like and to find out how we can better their time here at Albertus. These events also help to strengthen our community, it’s a place to meet new friends, have more fun times with old friends and just give identities to these faces that we see every day on our small campus. Everyone sees everyone at Albertus and I believe that as an SGA member we are also responsible for making sure that we don’t just see each other but we know each other. We are a governing body and as such, we support our community in everything they do and want to achieve. We help out clubs who also want to do something for our students. This is done through financial funding, volunteering our time for planning, set up or clean up if needed and we, just like any other student, would support them by participating in whatever activity it may be. We are here to serve the students in any way we can so that we can all have a better experience here in any aspect of their college life.
The Albertus Magnus community believes and lives by the four pillars of Dominican tradition. Community, Prayer, Study and Service. I believe that SGA very strongly lives by the pillar of service. The role of SGA is to provide opportunities for students to connect with each other in fun and positive ways. We serve the students by showing them issues that are surrounding the world today and help them feel that they can be a part of it too. SGA is a governing body that is put in place to serve the students so they can look back at their time here and feel like they will always have a sense of belonging to our community.