Last week, DU hosted its first annual Student Org Week in an effort help student organizations grow and develop, according to the DU Student Activities Facebook page. The week included four events: the Reverse Career Fair, a P.E.A.K. (Participate, Enhance, Activate, Know) workshop, the Winter Pioneer Carnival and an Advisor/Leadership Training.
Reverse Career Fair
On Tuesday, Feb. 18, over 30 student organizations participated in the Reverse Career Fair, held from 7-8 p.m. in the Driscoll Gallery. The reverse career fair put the employers in the role of students, approaching each organization’s table to introduce themselves and their business. Over 25 different employers were represented at the fair.
“It’s a fabulous opportunity to showcase DU groups,” said Executive Director of Career Services Sue Hinkin.
Several students said the format made talking to employers easier.
“It’s a less intimidating way to network and to meet employers and to establish connections,” said second-year student Molly Mosenthal, a member of the DU Environmental Team. “It’s not as scary as walking into a room and not knowing anything about half the employers there.”
Senior Chelsea Korski, member of Up All Night, said she also found the event helpful.
“It’s a great way just to be able to talk about the transferable skills that you acquired being in a club or an organization,” added Korski. “It’s kind of not as intimidating compared to when you go to a table at a career … There’s kind of already something established to talk about. They’re asking you questions which makes it nicer rather than you trying to think up a question based on the brochure you’re looking at.”
P.E.A.K. Workshop
On Friday, Feb. 20, University Programming Support (UPS) hosted a “Smarketing 101” workshop, aimed at helping student organizations better promote themselves and their events on campus.
“I feel like here it’s kind of a challenge to get people to your event sometimes, especially when the Driscoll Bridge is the most effective way, sometimes the only primary way, for organizations to market their event,” said junior Ryan Huning, a member of UPS. “Giving organizations more tools and more knowledge when it comes to marketing in general, ‘smarketing,’ will lead them to have more successful events.”
Representatives from GlobeMed, DUET and other organizations discussed strategies to better “smarket” their event, or “smart market.”
“What your event’s about should line up with [your marketing] design,” said Huning.
Second-year student Julia Chun, a member of UPS, said the workshops are a response to increased interest from student organizations.
“They’re topics that students have reached out to us about, what they’re looking for and ways to make their events better,” said Chun.
UPS is a branch of DUPB “designed to help other organizations be successful,” according to Huning.
“We want to increase student life here on campus,” said Huning. “We want events that we’re aligned with in our values as a student organization to be carried out through these events that we participate in.”
Student Org Fair
On Wednesday, Feb. 19, DU Student Activities hosted a winter student organizations fair on the Driscoll Bridge to promote various clubs and groups within the DU community, similar to the Pioneer Carnival held during fall orientation. However, this was the first time one was held in the winter quarter.
According to Graduate Assistant for Student Activities Suzanne Medwid, the event was organized in order to allow student-led clubs and groups another chance they may not normally have to recruit otherwise during the year. She said Student Activities chose to hold the event on the bridge due to the high amount of student traffic there.
“We felt like a lot of student organizations don’t have a lot of different avenues to really share their mission and share what they’re doing on campus,” said Medwid, “so we gave them a place to all come together and advertise what they’re doing and to attract more members. On top of that, we wanted to help build community for student orgs so people who aren’t in student orgs can see who they are on campus.”
According to Medwid, 22 student organizations participated in the event, and an estimated 200 students passed through the area.
One of the student organizations at the event was improv comedy group Skintight Outrage, whose booth was tabled by members Preston Evans and Dani Koelling. Both Evans and Koelling said they benefited from having a winter organizations fair.
“We’ve had at least eight people sign up for improv,” said Evans. “We usually get about 40 people to come to our shows, so that’s like a 20 percent bump for us. [We want] people to sign up for our group because we want them to audition themselves. Improv is a really good time to watch but it’s even more fun to do, and anyone can do it.”
New student organizations appeared at the fair as well. National co-ed business fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, whose table was led by members Brigitte Kirchner, Elspeth Sweatman and Celia Smits, opened a new chapter at DU this academic year.
“We need new members who are passionate about community service and who want to get out there and do new things,” said Sweatman. “People sometimes don’t pay attention to our group, and others, but today worked out well for us.”
Medwid finally stated Student Activities will not seek to hold another student organization fair in the spring quarter. However, the winter fair will be moved to the beginning of winter quarter for the next academic year.
