With over 450 clubs and organizations on campus and the option to create more, Northwestern students have countless opportunities to delve into their interests outside the classroom. Student Organizations and Activities, part of the Division of Student Affairs, works to support these clubs and students through programs, activities and services. SOA’s team, formed by full-time staff and undergraduate and graduate assistants, offers support for clubs and organizations while sponsoring programs like Wildcat Welcome and NU Nights. With the academic year in full swing, the office has a variety of projects in action — and many more to come, SESP sophomore Hope Jordan said.
Jordan joined SOA as an undergraduate student assistant during her freshman year. As part of the office, she said she primarily focuses on handling the operational aspects of SOA’s programming.
At the beginning of this academic year, Jordan said she helped with processing new organizations registering with SOA. She also said she was part of the team behind the Fall Student Organization Fair held at the start of the quarter.
The SOA team started planning for the fair during Winter Quarter last year, Jordan said. During the brainstorming process, Jordan said it considered using all three floors of Norris University Center, but that did not end up working out.
“Honestly, it’s just kind of tinkering with events, talking to University staff and people who oversee bigger spaces like Norris or campus events in general,” Jordan said. “(It’s) seeing what they’ll let us do and where we have to draw the line.”
This year, Jordan said she will also serve as the main planner of SOAcon, an event dedicated to supporting students stepping into leadership roles in their respective clubs and organizations. She said she also works on several other miscellaneous tasks, such as sending emails, communicating with clubs and occasionally designing posts for the SOA Instagram account.
Jordan said one of her favorite aspects of being a student assistant is the opportunity to work events. This quarter, she said she went on the architecture boat tour and watched “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Both were hosted by SOA’s Passport Program, which provides students the chance to explore the Chicago area.
“I absolutely love all my coworkers and my bosses. It’s just a very supportive community and, honestly, my professional experience would not be the same without (this) job,” Jordan said. “It gives me so many opportunities, and not even just learning and developmental opportunities, but fun things I get to do or tell my friends about.”
In terms of how SOA plans to improve its programming, Jordan said the office aims to encourage students to make groups more barrier-free.
According to Jordan, many student groups do not require any experience in order to join or participate in their activities.
“There’s a little bit of an internal fear or guard that students have (in) them. If they feel like they don’t already have a ton of experience, they shouldn’t join an organization,” Jordan said. “In my experience working with student orgs, most of them are so beginner friendly and a lot of them are not competitive. They don’t have any barriers to join.”
In hopes of increasing accessibility to joining organizations and clubs, Jordan said SOA has been trying to launch initiatives aiming to help students find groups they might not have known about, whether or not they have any experience in the field.
Weinberg sophomore Fiona Bolzan is the social media chair for NU Political Union. Because of her interest in bolstering NU Political Union’s publicity, she said she reached out to SOA to request doing an Instagram takeover.
“They helped us a lot with publicity. We were able to do a takeover on their Instagram account, which helped us reach more people,” Bolzan said. “It was a pretty easy process. I think (SOA) is definitely a good organization, and it helps keep everything organized.”
Joe Lattal, associate director of SOA, is one of the student assistants’ supervisors. Lattal said full-time staff supervisors work collaboratively with student assistants to determine ways their work at SOA can align with their interests, from academic to campus activities.
Lattal also said the student assistants offer their team with perspectives from the student end, especially because many are involved in other campus groups and activities.
“Not only are student assistants valuable as staff support, but since they tend to be involved in student organizations or fraternity, sorority chapters, they bring valuable perspective about what it’s like to access SOA resources, and they understand our efforts to support the student organization community,” Lattal said.
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