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Syracuse University’s Student Association is co-hosting several inaugural initiatives this week — including a charity run and a “Campus Compass” end-of-year event — to conclude the spring 2024 semester.

SA, along with the Helpful and Ethical Leadership Project and Mock Trial, will hold the university’s first Orange Dash Charity 5K Run/3K Walk this upcoming Saturday. The Campus Compass event will be a reflective celebration for the association’s members and an opportunity for registered student organizations to provide feedback from the academic year.

SA President-Elect German Nolivos, who currently serves as the association’s vice president of community and government affairs, described Campus Compass as a “mixer” between SA and RSO leaders. During the event, Nolivos said SA will encourage its members to reflect on their successes from the past year and encourage continued engagement with the student body.

“It’s just a way to celebrate a very successful year for all of us in this organization with a lot of events (and) even student engagement,” Nolivos said. “I’m pretty surprised about how much engagement we had this year, and it’s pretty awesome to see that.”

During the recent election period, SA made efforts to increase student engagement, such as through enhancing marketing tactics, introducing awareness initiatives, hosting events and collaborating with RSOs.

Along with promoting engagement with the student body, SA Vice President-Elect Reed Granger said she hopes to use feedback from Campus Compass to develop programming for the next school year. They said the event, which will be held on Tuesday night in Schine Student Center Room 304, will offer team-building activities, panel discussions and networking opportunities for RSOs.

Granger also said the event will serve as a workshop for incoming SA leaders to transition into their new roles ahead of the fall 2024 semester.

“It definitely helps the transitional process, through people graduating from organizations and bringing in new leaders, just kind of preparing people to continue with their programming next year and meet other organizations that do things on campus,” Granger said.

Later this week, SA will co-host The Orange Dash charity run to raise funds to support the unhoused community throughout the central New York region, according to an event poster. Every donation will go to the Rescue Mission of Syracuse, Nolivos said.

Nolivos said the run’s organizers will be tabling this week in Schine to raise awareness and answer any questions. Students can register for The Orange Dash — which will begin outside of Schine at noon this Saturday — on SU’s ‘Cuse Activities portal.

Continuing its efforts to further the association’s relationship with RSOs, SA members attended the university’s annual 44 Stars of Excellence Awards leadership gala, a ceremony organized by SU’s Student Engagement recognizing faculty, staff and student RSO leaders’ accomplishments throughout the academic year.

During the celebration on Sunday, Nolivos was awarded for his diversity and inclusion initiatives within SA and other on-campus student organizations. In the fall, Nolivos and a team of students organized SU’s inaugural Calentón Music Fest, a Hispanic/Latine music festival co-hosted by SA, the Las Naranjas Spanish language and culture club and La L.U.C.H.A.

Other SA members won awards at the banquet, including Comptroller Dylan France and Vice President Yasmin Nayrouz, who won the “Unsung Hero” and “Outstanding Senior Leadership” awards, respectively.

Nolivos said he is very happy with the job he and other SA members have done this year, and that his award was not a one-person effort.

“I feel this was an award not only for me, but also for my Calentón team,” Nolivos said. “It wasn’t just me, it was a team of people dedicated to this vision.”

Published on April 21, 2024 at 11:30 pm

Contact Roxanne: rmboychu@syr.edu