SGA receives accolades for Student Voice Project

Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Student Government Association (SGA) was awarded the third place prize for the Student Team/Innovations Service Awards at this year’s VCCS Student Leadership Conference in Roanoke, Va.  Held during the last weekend of Oct., the three-day conference brought together leaders from community colleges statewide to share ideas and discuss the progress of proposals, programs and initiatives that have been launched in campuses across the Commonwealth.

This year, PVCC’s SGA was commended for its work on the Student Voice Project (SVP), a student-developed and SGA-run program that provides PVCC students with the opportunity and guidelines to create tangible change on campus. SGA President Kate Cude attended the conference, accepted the award, and spoke to faculty members, student leaders and representatives from numerous VCCS colleges.

“It’s students explaining it to students,” said Jan Reed, Director of the Student Development Program. “I’m convinced that if this was not a student-run project, it would not be as successful…it’s a victory.”

The Student Leadership Conference is typically geared toward the acknowledgment and promotion of charitable programs and endeavors implemented by VCCS colleges. Groups from Tidewater Community College won the first and second place awards this year. The winning group created a program to bring in thousands of computers for their campus and classrooms; the runner-up was an engineering club that oversaw a massively successful food-drive, appropriately dubbed “The Hunger Games.”

“Traditionally, student government associations don’t submit an award for this conference,” said Cude. “But I needed to get the word out and share the [SVP] idea with other colleges, because it’s a program that keeps giving back.”

According to Cude, the final session on Saturday evening was a round-table style discussion that became more of a Q & A session with the PVCC SGA.

“Compared to a lot of the other student governments in the VCCS system, we [PVCC] are very developed in terms of college policy,” said Cude. “We ended up answering a lot of questions and tried to help a lot of other colleges and new student governments.”  Cude hopes to see her project implemented in other Community Colleges.

“It would be great if they would just try it,” said Cude, who not only offered her anecdotal advice to other student governments, but also extended an invitation to help them with potential obstacles along the way. “It would have been great to have someone to look to for advice when I started the project,” said Cude.

And while other Virginia schools may implement the SVP, the SGA has shifted its energy back to PVCC’s campus and the many local undertakings that are currently underway, as well as those on the horizon. Students can look forward to a number of improvements to the school, including new clubs and classes.  A proposed testing center at the Eugene Giuseppe Center in Greene County is in the works, and a Culinary Arts Club has been proposed for those students interested in sharpening their knife skills. The outdoor basketball court is currently getting a makeover, and students have also proposed that PVCC offer defensive driving courses. And, according to Cude, before the end of the semester a website dedicated to the Student Voice Project will be available, where everyone can see the SVP presentations themselves, and stay up-to-date with new clubs and projects. Until then, for more information, visit the SGA’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pvccstudentgov), or email questions, comments and ideas to sga@pvcc.edu.