Student Involvement Newsletter

February 2021 Issue

Welcome Back!

We hope everyone had a lovely holiday season with their families, enjoying winter traditions and cozy days!

It is good to be back in classes even though it still looks different from the norm. However, Student Involvement is coming at you with full speed. We are so ready to get this semester started and we look forward to interacting more with you all as the semester. Here are a couple of updates from our office as well as our different student organizations. Enjoy!

Student Organization Updates

Wildlife Club

Wildlife Club

Despite the challenges that Wildlife Club has faced by starting a new club in the middle of a global pandemic, they are trying their best to make the most of it and keep everybody involved during this time.


One of the things they have been excited for is to be able to read and talk about the books. Their request for funding was approved and Student Involvement provided them with the funds to purchase this book for all their members.

As featured in the picture in the right, you can see that Wildlife Club Secretary- Sean Dick, Treasurer- Martin Walschburger Hurtado and President- Stephanie Rafferty are very happy with their books!


In their future meetings they plan to talk about goals they have as a club, volunteering opportunities available to them through Stark Parks, their plans for this year's Earth Day, and a local trip they plan to take at the end of the Spring semester!

They also have fun social activities planned like a movie night through "Netflix Party", a virtual visit with the author of the book they have been reading, and a trip to the Akron Zoo!

Wildlife Club

EnviroKents

After being on hiatus for a semester, EnviroKents is finally getting back to monthly meetings and making a difference in our community.

Before the school closed from COVID in March, members of EnviroKents were the first to try out the Geography Department’s new Augmented Reality Sandbox, a fun tool that helps students understand topographic maps, landform development, and how water moves through environmental systems.

Members also worked in Flash’s Food Garden over the summer. Five student volunteers ensured the garden provided for families in need by donating over 40 pounds to a local pre-school and food banks.

Possible future meetings will include a guest speaker who will discuss landfills and their environmental impact, a variety of service projects, and some outdoor fun including hiking and kayaking.

Comm Club

Comm Club

With the hit of the covid-19 pandemic and the switch to remote learning, Comm Club had to transition to remote meetings as well.


Last semester, they brought in guest speakers to talk to club members (or any student interested) about their educational history, experience in the communication field, and advice for students pursuing that kind of career. These speakers were from different areas of communication such as marketing, crisis communication, and PR/ advertising. This allowed students to get an idea of the different routes available to them with their degree.

In October of 2020 some of the students from the club, including Taylor Vanderveen- Comm Club President and Dr. Erin Hollenbaugh, their advisor, attended the 2020 Virtual Ohio Communication Association Conference which was a big success too!


This semester, they would like to get the club involved in some sort of community service and offer students a chance to give back to our local area, especially after the last year we have all endured.

Comm Club

Spring Resource Fair Shoutouts!

The resource fair this past Friday was real fun! Thank you to all the organizations namely Wildlife Club, Comm Club, GEODES, Biology Club, Revive and Autistics Assemble that were in attendance. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to be there!

Upcoming Events

Grateful Grams Initiative <3

Grateful Grams Initiative <3

Grateful Grams Initiative <3
If you were with us last Spring, you remember how successful this Grateful Gram initiative during the week of Valentine's day was. We had over 50 cards to deliver at the end of the project :). This year, we would still like to encourage students to do the same even though it looks a bit different.


We are having students fill out an information sheet detailed with who they want to send their Gram to, their contact and the message. The deadline to fill out the form will be the 11th of February. We will then use an e-card service to deliver them by email. Please encourage your clubs to be a part of this! You can fill the form our here https://forms.gle/VBNavSpxLGLRnaha6

Student Leadership Academy

Every semester, we partner up with Stark State College to offer our students leadership sessions where they are able to develop their professional and personal skills and earn a certificate at the end of it. Please encourage your members to take advantage of this if they are interested!
Leadership Session Opportunity

Leadership Session Opportunity

The Student Leadership Institute is a free leadership development conference for Kent State students. The event will be on the 20th of February from 9-1pm and it begins with a keynote speaker, and then includes breakout sessions in which student's self-select their desired sessions. They currently are offering 22 different sessions on various areas of leadership and personal development for students to choose from.


The keynote speaker this year is Ken Nwadike Jr., better known as the "free hugs guy." Ken started a free hugs campaign shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing to spread love and community. He truly embodies our "Flashes take care of Flashes" mentality and it is sure to be a fun and inspiring session. You can register for the session here https://www.kent.edu/csi/student-leadership-institute

Leadership Session Opportunity

Dialogue with the Dean Series Sign- Ups

This semester, we are continuing with the Dialogue with the Dean series which was a big success from last semester.


The purpose of this series is to stablish open communication between the Dean and her administrative team and to ensure that voices and ideas can be heard from all students, including students of color.

It has also served as an opportunity for student organizations to speak directly with Dean Seachrist about a topic or area that is important to the organization or a topic the organization wants to learn more about.


Please use the Sign- Up link below to let us know what month your organization would like to participate.

Student Involvement Updates

We Want to Connect With You

We have been finding it hard to communicate with all your organizations especially with all the changes we have had to put in place. It is because of this that we want to host a series of 30- minute Info Sessions during the second week of February to fill you in on all the latest information you need to know and answer any questions you may have.


It is mandatory to attend at least one of these sessions. In addition to that, at least 2 members from the leadership of your organizations should be in attendance. If none of these times work for you, please feel free to email us and we can set something up for you.


Below are the available sessions for that week and the links to join the meetings for each.

  1. Mon 8th, 1pm- 1:30pm Click here to join the meeting
  2. Tue 9th, 10-10:30am Click here to join the meeting
  3. Tue 9th, 2-2:30pm Click here to join the meeting
  4. Wed 10th, 4-4:30pm Click here to join the meeting
  5. Wed 10th, 6-6:30pm Click here to join the meeting
  6. Thur 11th, 10-10:30am Click here to join the meeting

Microsoft Bookings

Here is another way that you can connect with us! Student Involvement appointments are now available through Microsoft Bookings! Click the link below to schedule a meeting with us.

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/KSUStarkStudentInvolvement@ksuprod.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/

If your organization has questions or you're looking to find out what's happening, we would love to meet with you!

Friendly Reminders


  1. Please remember to send us the monthly rosters of your meetings by the 1st of every month detailing the students in attendance, their Kent email address and the structure of your meeting/ activity.

  2. Students participating in organizations must be enrolled in and passing at least three (3) semester hours of coursework on the Stark campus and be in good academic standing. Students who are officers/contact persons of an organization must meet the same standards in addition to maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 2.0+ (Good Academic Standing) on a 4.00 scale.

  3. Since most of what we do is virtual now and it is hard to keep track of what every organization is up to, feel free to send us pictures or summaries of what your organizations have been involved in. Thank you to everyone who has been sending me materials for this, we would love to feature the rest of the organizations in the next issues.
  4. We are still accepting any allocation requests for the organizations activities or virtual events so feel free to contact Ashley Brightbill about it at abright6@kent.edu or Evangeline Agum at epacific@kent.edu.

Get to Know Us!

U.S.G Unplugged

U.S.G Unplugged

U.S.G Unplugged

Hi Flashes!


In case I haven’t gotten the chance to introduce myself, my name is Taylor Weaver and I am a member of Undergraduate Student Government here at Kent Stark. I am a senior double majoring in Psychology and Criminology and Justice Studies. I am involved in several campus organizations including the Honor’s Program, Revive and EnviroKents.

I absolutely love to travel and have studied abroad in Italy and Rwanda. I am super excited for this semester and I can’t wait to connect with our awesome campus community. Have a great semester!