This was taken right before the inauguration of St. Norbert’s new president, Brian Bruess. All students who hold leadership roles, primary presidents of clubs, were invited to do a walk to show off our club. My co-presidents for Knitting Knights and Graphos couldn’t be there, so I held both.
I am not someone who tends to just lounge about. I grow antsy when not doing something. Because of this, I was part of many clubs and had a few jobs while in college. I was co-president of Knitting Knights, co-editor of the creative journal on campus called Graphos, co-president of the SNC chapter of Sigma Tau Delta (the english honor society), secretary and chair holder of a female social group called the Electric Company, and president of the leadership honor society called Omicron Delta Kappa. I also worked at the Tech Bar as a consultant, an academic support notetaker, the English TA (teaching assistant), and I worked at the cafeteria. I worked the maximum of twenty hours a week while being a full-time student.
Like I said, I like to stay busy.
This is an example of a baby hat my group would make.
Me and my co-president, Niki, at the Club Interest Fair, trying to entice other students to join with our awesome shirts: knit happens.
For Knitting Knights, we met weekly to knit baby hats or work on other projects. I taught students how to knit and provided guidance to issues they were stumbling on. I also sent them the baby hat pattern. I sent reminder emails and posted on our Facebook page awesome knitting memes to remind students to come to our meetings. My co-president uploaded the traditional weekly selfie onto the Facebook page. At the end of the year, I bundled all the baby hats and other knitted donations to donate to a hospital.
The Graphos table at the Club Interest Fair and some of our members, explaining to incoming freshmen what Graphos is all about: a student creative journal. We tried to pass out some past issues to better show what we are.
Me showing off some past issues of Graphos. There oldies but goodies! I went around and handed them out to people and distributed them throughout the campus buildings. I joked on Facebook that I was the Graphos Fairy.
Graphos is an entirely student run creative journal. I compiled all the submissions and sent them for review by our student submission board. I then put together all the votes to see what submissions were selected and assigned the layout tasks to other group members. Once that was done, I looked over what they had done for layout and double-checked that everything was formatted correctly. After proofreading the journal one last time, we sent it to the printers and distributed copies throughout campus. I also did a similar journal for my fairy tale class in my junior year of college.
Me showing off the Sigma Tau Delta badge, stating who I am and where I am from.
Me and another Sigma Tau Delta member manning a table to help promote the Literacy Green Bay book fair. I was there for 8 hours, letting people know about the organization and why they should donate.
The best part about Sigma Tau Delta was preparing for conventions. During the fall, we planned service events with the Literary Council of Green Bay and met to talk about what our plans were for submitting to the spring convention. In the spring, we put our energy into planning and preparing for convention, figuring out budgeting, and how we will arrive to the convention. In 2017, 2018, and 2019 we drove to the convention and bonded. Some of my favorite college memories have been made at the conventions. In 2017, the convention was in Louisville, Kentucky where I received an honorable mention for my creative prose. In 2018, the convention was in Cincinnati, Ohio where we had a blast and learned more about each other. In 2019, the convention was held in St. Louis, Missouri and focused on freedom, so we went to a lot of different museums, like the Underground Railroad Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe house. We had fun and were nerds the whole entire time. I have shirts to prove it.
Me wearing an Electric Company t-shirt showing off our theme for Homecoming one year.
I also have shirts from the Electric Company, the female social group I was a part of on campus. I acted as the secretary, taking notes of everything discussed at our weekly meeting and forwarding them to the girls in case they needed to return to any of the information on our docket. I kept them updated on events coming up and any sudden changes to meeting times, like a cancellation. I also was the Fraternity Relations chair (or St. Norbert’s affectionate term of Ugly Chair). I kept our Ugly or Fraternity member updated on meeting times, making sure he felt appreciated by our group, and sought if he ever needed anything from our group. I also was the Homecoming/Spring Fling coordinator for the Electric Company, meaning I put together our side of Homecoming/Spring Fling events. I wrote our chant for an event called “Scream Your Theme,” organized our rosters to know who was doing what event, and put together our Airbands routine with the help of the girls participating in that event. I believe in having them give their input and am open to their ideas.
This was taken at my induction into Omicron Delta Kappa. My mother gifted me with a metal rose and took a picture of me with the official welcome certificate and pin that shows off the ODK Greek letters.
I also was the preisdent of Omicron Delta Kappa. We met every other week and talked about what was occurring on campus, what we were doing in our other clubs, and how we could improve leadership on campus. I held a spot on the Public Relations board of the club and helped put together posters about what service events we were doing and what our club does through leadership. As president, I took roll and sought everyone’s input as to what they wanted to do and helped push for more involvement with each other through study groups together and movie nights. It wasn’t always the most successful, but I’m glad I at least tried.
Despite all that I was a part of, I still made time for myself. I enjoyed watching movies while knitting and bonding with my roommates. They may not see me very often, but they knew at night and on the weekends I was there for them. I know how to budget my time and fit in homework, clubs, and work.
Now that I am graduated, I still keep pretty busy. When I was straight out of college, I was working four jobs. I condensed it down to two, so I could spend a little more time with family. I still knit and watch movies, as well as take my little sister out for bonding days. Just because I’m out of college doesn’t mean I’ve lost any of my busy drive.
