2008 Woodie Awards
SARB charges into the future
By Brittany Cole
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 3/3/06 Section: News
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The students, Katelyn Palmer, Kara Obuszewski, Katie Platte, Steve Walters and Meghan Oefinger, all members of the Slippery Rock University Student Alumni Relations Board (SARB), along with the board's adviser, Michael Saraka, attended the conference.
The title of the conference was "Charging into the Future," and allowed the SRU students to meet students from other colleges and universities from the Northeastern United States and Canada.
All of the students who attended were to serve as ambassadors, admissions representatives and student alumni associations for their respective institutions.
Saraka, who is also the director of Alumni Relations at SRU, said increasing membership, raising money, planning special events and career networking were some of the topics discussed at the conference.
"The conference is very beneficial because it allows our students to see what other schools and associations are doing," Saraka said. "It gives us a fresh perspective on ways to put life into our organization."
The Association of Student Advancement Programs is an alliance of student organizations that provides resources and opportunities for networking and leadership development.
The first student alumni association was established at Indiana University in the late 1940s, and the first national meeting of these organizations was held much later, in 1974 at Iowa State University.
Saraka said SRU's organization began just six years ago and has been trying to grow since.
Some of the other District II schools to attend the conference were Carnegie Mellon University, Clarion University, Ithaca College and the University of Buffalo.
"The goal of SARB is to train students to be good alumni," Saraka said. "It teaches them about service, fundraising, the institution and allows them to network with other alumni."
Palmer, the president of SARB, said the conference gave her and the other members who attended many ideas to get the organization better well known on campus here at SRU.
SARB meets every other Tuesday.
