On Nov. 22, a Thanksgiving dinner was held by Jennifer Mair as part of her Skyline Students Step Up campaign to encourage students to get involved and participate in developing ideas concerning how the campus can be improved.

The event started at 12:30 p.m. in Room 6-202 with food and drinks available to everyone present. The event proved to be massively successful as the room was filled with students willing to take part in the event.

“I thought it was really successful; we had a really great turn out,” said Genesis Quiroz, Skyline student who was in attendance. “We had some really great ideas being bounced around the room on how we can improve our campus and our college experience, so over all it was a great success.”

Also present at the event was Skyline College President Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud, in addition to members of the student government (the ASSC) including President Heidi Hansen.

The main event started at 1:00 p.m. with announcements from Jennifer Mair declaring the beginning of the Skyline Students Step Up campaign. There she outlined the purpose and aims of the campaign before introducing the keynote speaker, Emily Kinner, Student Trustee from De Anza College.

Kinner talked about how students should take an active role on campus and take time to voice their opinions on issues which affect them as students. She went on to provide a number of examples in which De Anza students have taken actions that resulted in benefits. In the end, her message was that students should always remember that any student-established programs aren’t meant to only help current students but future ones too. Once she was finished, the rest of the event was spent brainstorming and voting on the ideas that the students had come up with as a group, choosing the best before finally sharing them with everyone and putting it to a cote.

The day’s events came to a close at 3:45 p.m. with a prize giveaway that included an MP3 player for first place and $20 gift cards for second and third place.

When asked for her thoughts on how the day had gone by, Jennifer Mair commented, “Fantastic! I’m really excited for the students participating; the energy they bring, (and) the ideas students come up with are amazing. That’s why I do  these events, so to have these ideas come (forward) and to give them (students’) energy.”

The Skyline Student Step Up campaign will be running until April 19, when Mair plans to hold a simpler event, allowing students to vote on the best ideas with the  winner finally receiving a grant to put the idea into action.

If you missed the event, it’s not too late to take part; just visit http://.skyline.civicevolution.org and follow three easy steps, become a member, and propose your idea to participate. All students are encouraged and welcome to take part in the development process.

The best ideas will be voted on and chosen by students. Available to fund these ideas is $6100 broken into three grant awards of $1200 each and a single grant of $2500.

Students who are interested in presenting their ideas or want more information, can also contact Jennifer Mair at her email: [email protected].