Hello, everyone! I hope your first few weeks of classes have been going as well! I am certainly enjoying this school year and look forward to the rest. There have been some exciting things that have recently been happening at IVCC that I would like to tell you about.

First off, we had Spirit Day on Sept. 13. Although the weather was looking gloomy in the morning, the sky cleared up and the day went great. Many student organizations were in the courtyard, including Chem Club, the Honors Program and College Democrats. These organizations and clubs each had a table to try and encourage students to get involved. Each table was doing something different to catch students’ attention. For example, Chem Club was making ice cream using liquid nitrogen which was really delicious. In addition to the activities that were put on by the individual clubs, there was a photo booth, caricature artists, and license plates printed. I am very happy with how great the day turned out to be for everyone involved and we thank all the students for coming out to make Spirit Day successful.

The second piece of exciting news I have is that freshman Student Government elections will be held in the Student Life Space on Thursday, Sept. 21 and Friday, Sept. 22 from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. There will be three positions that people will be running for: one Student Representative and two members of the Freshman Programming Board. Everyone is allowed to vote in these elections, not only freshmen. These elections are important and it takes less than a minute to vote, so the Student Government Association will greatly appreciate it when you vote!

The last thing that I would like to talk about was more of a personal experience for me, but relates to IVCC as a whole. On Sept. 14, I attended a meeting at Heartland Community College in Bloomington. At this meeting, there were other student trustees from around the state who I got to meet and network with. At this meeting, we were split into groups and talked about issues pertinent to our community colleges. We had a lot of interesting and insightful talks with each other, hearing how different our community colleges are, but also how similar they are when it comes to issues. This experience really meant a lot to me and I look forward to the opportunity to do it again.

If you have any concerns that you would like addressed, do not be afraid to come to a board meeting or contact me personally. My email is on the IVCC website under the Board of Trustees member list.