Hofstra Serves During the Holidays

Happy Holidays from the Office of Student Leadership and Activities (OSLA)! While it is a Hofstra tradition that the Hofstra community serves our local communities all through-out the year, I encourage you to take a moment during this Holiday Season to reflect on all the ways that you have served this past year and how you would like to continue serving in 2012.

OSLA rang out the 2011 year serving with the Midnight Run student committee by giving out clothing, food, and toiletries directly to the homeless on the streets of New York City. This bi-annual tradition was started last spring semester after OSLA's first Midnight Run was such a great success! The Midnight Run is a non-profit organization that was started by a man who was homeless as a way for those who have to help those who have-not. There are now over 1000 runs every year with many different organizations volunteering to give out donations on a nightly basis. It is also a great way for volunteers to realize that the negative stereotypes about the homeless are not true and that the homeless are real people no different than themselves. None of us are safe from homelessness. It only takes one tragedy (whether it be a natural disaster, an accident, or a medical issue) to potentially result in homelessness.

Above is this fall semester's Midnight Run Committee. On the evening of the run, November 30th, we were worried we would run into a lot of traffic because not only were President Obama and Mrs. Obama in the city, but so was Justin Bieber for the tree lighting ceremony! Luckily we ran into no problems, and driving was smooth sailing. I think in part because the Midnight Run organization was kind enough to give us all our stops downtown. So all November the Midnight Run student committee collected clothing, food, and toiletries that they sorted out the evening before the run to hand out to the NYC homeless. We saw around 60 men and women and handed out over 100 sandwiches, snacks, hundreds of pieces of clothing, shoes, jackets, etc. It was a great night, and luckily not too cold as well! The Midnight Run is truly a life-changing experience.

Thank you to the co-sponsors of this event: Public Safety, Lackmann, and Recreation and Intramural Sports! Thank you also to everyone in the Hofstra community who donated clothing, food, and/or toiletries! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can tell you it was much appreciated by those whom received your donations. We will be collecting items again in April, so keep an eye out for that! Any students interested in joining the Midnight Run student committee in the spring 2012, please stop by OSLA (260 Student Center).

RA of the month award winners for November

It's that time of the semester again where the Office of Residential Programs likes to recognize a few of our outstanding staff members. Here are the winners for the month of November.

Resident Assistant of the Month: Chelsea Tirrell Chelsea is an RA in the Netherlands complex. She works in Orange House which is the Leadership living/learning community. Chelsea has an amazing disposition and fits the role of a Resident Assistant well. She is outgoing, personable, approachable and highly motivated. She has really helped boost the morale and efficiency of her co-RAs by supporting them in all areas of the job. Chelsea has amazing relationships with her residents. She is very well versed in their interests, issues and concerns. She is supportive of their efforts/interests within the Leadership house, motivates them to get involved in on campus organizations and really helps them make the most of their experience outside of the house. She has motivated (along with her fellow co RA Steve) a large group of the house residents to work towards their goal of creating an anti-bullying club here at Hofstra, which was recently recognized as an official club by OSLA. She has helped to develop this great community! Wonderful job Chelsea!


Senior Resident Assistant of the Month: Rachel Lutz Rachel is the newly-appointed SRA of Colonial Square East. She has only been in this role for about two months and she has already proven herself to be a strong leader in her building and for her staff. Rachel jumped right into her responsibility of being adviser to the Colonial Square Hall Council. She works hard to make sure that the Hall Council will be successful and takes ownership to insure that success. Rachel's ability to always think ahead and anticipate possible issues enables her to be a strong asset to her supervisors and co-workers. Thanks for being a super star, Rachel!


Program of the Month: Billy Finnegan and Alex Romano Billy and Alex did a wonderful job in creating a Thanksgiving program for Stuyvesant Hall, where about 40 students attended. The program was really about giving thanks and not just eating food. At the program, Billy and Alex told the residents about the 1,000 Thanks (& Giving) Project (that is sponsored by Hofstra Hillel each Holiday season) and said that before getting a plate of food they needed to send one person a special note of thanks. All were pleasantly surprised when many of the residents loved idea and filled out 2 or 3 cards. Once everyone had gotten their food, the students went around and talked about something that were thankful for. This spurred a lot of conversation and many people became emotional and realized just how much they have to be thankful for. Thanks you to Alex and Billy for organizing such a successful program!

Check back next semester to see our new winners!!

Word on the Street: Dec 7, 2011

Finals begin in just a few days, and we're hoping that you are feeling confident and ready. Tell us how you're feeling, and know all of us in Student Affairs are rooting for you! Take care of yourself, build sleep into your schedule, and good luck!

Christmas In The City!

Yesterday the Office of Student Leadership and Activities took 26 students into NYC to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular! The city was all decked out with festive lights and decorations and boy did we luck out! The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was recently lit on November 30th and crowds were swarming to get a look. Our bus driver drove us right through the crowd and even stopped long enough for us to get a picture!

The Rockettes put on an AMAZING show with fancy costume changes and excellent choreography. This year’s show included a 3-D video game where the superhero Rockettes needed to save Christmas as they brightened the hearts of the Humbugs, and strengthen the bond between a frustrated mom and her little daughter.

The 3-D video game was not the highlight for Hofstra students though…it was way more simple…LIVE ANIMALS ANYONE? Yep—there were sheep, donkeys and camels on stage for the final Nativity scene and you had to see the way our student’s eyes lit up when they saw a misbehaved sheep look the other way during the show!

As Santa tries to explain, sometimes it truly is the little things in life, so remember to enjoy them!

Wishing you and your families a beautiful holiday season and best of luck on finals!

Jaclyn

A Debate-Themed Week

This week I was fortunate enough to attend three planning sessions related to the upcoming Presidential Debate being hosted by Hofstra on October 16, 2012. On Tuesday, five of us from the University attended a training session with the Commission on Presidential Debates in Washington, DC. Each of the four host schools for 2012, along with some previous host institutions, met to talk about everything from logistics to programming. My group talked about how to engage a campus in programs in the year leading up to the debate, as well as how to create opportunities for our students to engage with students from local middle schools and high schools. It was great to see our Educate ’08 program being held up as a model to other schools for how to turn a single event into a year of meaningful programs.

On Thursday, there were two meetings on campus. In the morning, faculty and deans met to talk about ideas for special topics courses, experiential learning opportunities, and events beginning in the spring term. Faculty from all disciplines will be planning unique opportunities for students, so be sure to keep an eye out for those offerings. The same evening, about 30 students met with a group of administrators in the Hofstra Parlor to give suggestions about speakers they would like to see on campus, or issues they’d like to see addressed during events.

In the next few weeks, we will be forming the joint Student/ Student Affairs committee that will support the programming efforts that will take place this year. This committee will also take the lead on planning and implementing many of the events that will take place outside of the debate hall during Debate Week. If you are interested in getting involved with that committee, or if you would like to suggest some ideas for speakers and events, contact me at jayne.brownell@hofstra.edu and I will be sure to invite you to our first meeting!

To get a sense of the level of activity on campus during Debate '08, check out the picture galleries at http://www.hofstra.edu/debate/debate08/debate_gallery_101308.html.

Get LinkedIn not LinkedOut!

Last night I had the pleasure of presenting at a community event for the University.  Hofstra University is committed to not only helping its students with the current job crisis but the community.  The major theme that kept on coming up in the discussion was the importance of an online presence.  All of the panelists, from various different industries, agreed that an online presence especially on LinkedIn is critical to a successful career search.

LinkedIn is the first social network job seekers should consider using to find opportunities. Yet job seekers without much work experience may wonder whether LinkedIn is useful for them. If you don’t already know a lot of people who are using LinkedIn, it is easy to underestimate its potential value.  Linked-in is the ultimate online networking site for everyone.

Growing your online network will help support your job hunting efforts today and in the future. Utilizing LinkedIn helps you keep track of contacts that might serve as references or refer you to opportunities later.  It is also the best software to showcase your online resume directly to the employer.  Let me just reiterate, Linked-in is not like Facebook.  It is utilized primarily for professional networking and personal branding uses.

LinkedIn says approximately 200,000 college students join every month! You don’t want to miss those opportunities by not having a cutting edge profile.

Look out for our upcoming Social Networking Series in Spring 2012!!


--Joseph Gebbie, Assistant Director, The Career Center

Hofstra Celebrates the Holidays

It's begun! The windows are starting to getting painted; are you ready for the fun?!?!?! Groups have voluteered their time to decorate the back of the main dining room not only for the Hofstra community but, for three groups of children; Hempstead Boys and Girls Club, The Hofstra Daycare and the families from the Saratoga Inn Shelter. The theme this year was Disney movies celebrate the Holidays.

Phi Sigma Sigma and Student Government Association (Beauty and the Beast celebrate Christmas), Delta Chi and Alpha Theta Beta (Aladdin celebrates Winter Solstice), Tau Epsilon Phi and Delta Gamma (Little Mermaid celebrates Chanukah), Sigma Alpha Mu and Delta Phi Epsilon (Winnie the Pooh celebrates Eid-al-Adha), Alpha Phi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Lion King celebrates New Year's Eve), Sigma Delta Tau and Phi Theta Delta (Snow White celebrates Sinterklaas), Phi Epsilon and Pi Kappa Alpha (Bambi celebrate Chinese New Year), Alpha Kappa Psi and Theta Tau (Tarzan celebrates Kwanzaa) and Sigma Pi and Alpha Epsilon Phi (Jungle Book celebrates Diwali).

So, come by the windows and see your fellow students painting and creating excitement for this year's Holiday Celebration.

And join us next Tuesday, December 6th at 5pm at the Holiday Lighting at Hofstra Hall. The Ceremony will be brief and will feature not only the lighting but, a Sigma'cappella performance! After the Ceremony the crowd will be serenaded over the Unispan to the main dining room where we can spend more time celebrating, enjoying the windows and the company! Don't forget to stop by the Student Center atrium and donate a toy, game or gift of your choice to benefit the families of the INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network).