This year’s Impact Week will feature new events and initiatives, and is something its creators hope will leave an even longer lasting effect on students and beyond.

Nia Boles, the Student Association’s chair of the Student Engagement Committee, is head of the project this year. She created a new event including greek organizations, in addition to a competition among participating organizations to gather the most canned goods. The ultimate goal of these events, Boles said in an email, is to expand the reach of Impact Week to the Syracuse community.

Impact Week 2013 starts on Oct. 28 and continues through Nov. 2. The theme this year is “Service is the New Black,” Boles said.

“Last year’s Impact Week was very successful and I knew I wanted this year to be even bigger and better,” Boles said. “The point of Impact Week is for students to really go off into the community and a make a real impact, so I knew I wanted many students and student organizations to be involved.”

Boles said she contacted places where students volunteered during last year’s Impact Week, organizations that were eager to have SA return for another year. Some of the organizations Boles said she’s reached out to include the Samaritan Center, the Rescue Mission and the Ronald McDonald House. In addition, she said, other committee members and the rest of SA have been supportive of the project by volunteering for Impact Week and promoting it to the rest of the school.

Boles said she and the committee came up with two new initiatives to add to Impact Week. The first is called Impact Greek, which Boles said is a competition among greek organizations to see which ones can complete the most service hours during the week.

The second initiative is called Impact Drive, a competition among registered student organizations to see which one can donate the most canned food.

“I love the way Nia created Impact Greek to get the greek community more involved with Impact Week,” said SA Vice President Duane Ford.

The week closes with an Impact Week Gala on Nov. 2, an event that honors participating students and organizations, which Ford said he also thought was a great idea.

He said the only challenge Boles might encounter is marketing the event. Because SA does not have a public relations director right now, the rest of the association has had to assume a lot of the marketing responsibilities, Ford said.

Boles said a challenge she faced was making sure she didn’t try to do too much for the project.

“There are so many ways to give back to the community and lend a helping hand,” Boles said. “I genuinely love helping people and giving back, so I think the hardest part about planning Impact Week was making sure I didn’t overextend myself and my committee.”

While she’s hoping to involve a lot of students and benefit as many people as possible, Boles said she would consider the event a success if just one person is affected in a positive way.

“The point of Impact Week is to raise awareness about the Syracuse community, to encourage students to leave the Hill, leave their comfort zone and really make a change and an impact on someone’s life,” Boles said. “If it is just one person, I’ll be happy.”

 

Published on October 21, 2013 at 2:08 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27