Student Success Day Turns to be Resourceful

Deadra Miller, online editor

On Feb. 26, students milled about the Bolick Student Center perusing the tables featuring services available to PVCC students. PVCC’s mascot Pouncer prowled through the crowd with pizza boxes encouraging students to check out all the booths.

David Lerman, director of student success and retention, with the help of the other Student Success Advisors, Kristen Holt and Kendra Powell, organized another Student Success Day with new activities such as a vision board and story writing table.

Lerman said, “This semester’s Student Success Day was designed more like a student resource fair. The workshops that were offered last semester were cut due to a strenuous review process that gets conducted after every student success event.” In addition to the free pizza and class credits given by certain professors, there were many resources available to students.

One of the tables at the fair was a voter registration table run by students in Assistant Professor of Political Science Connie Jorgensen’s political sciences classes. Chad Mitchell helped two PVCC students register at the booth. They said having tables like these make it easier to register and requested that the table appear at events like this in the future.

Financial Aid hosted another table, which included a game. Students could spin the wheel to randomly select a question. Financial Aid Administrative Assistant Sherry Dudley would then ask the question, and if they got it correct, the student would win a prize. Prizes included a PVCC hoodie, PVCC cinch sack, PVCC t-shirt, and gift certificates.  Lydia Wood, work study for financial aid was also asking questions of the students who came to the table.

Pouncer continued his rounds throughout the Student Success Day posing for pictures. At one point, Pouncer stopped by the Writing Center’s table and added to a story they were creating with the help of students. Each student that stopped by the table was invited to write the next sentence of the story. The story was titled “An Unusual Day at PVCC.” To read the story, please check out the Writing Center’s Facebook page.

Many tables spanning from UVA Credit Union to Disability Services were present at Student Success Day. Even Virginia State Trooper Recruitment Officer Brad Crews was present during this event. He had his recruitment table set up speaking with different students about joining the state police. Crews was excited to see the different resources available to PVCC students.

Finally, Amanda Key, coordinator of the student financial resource center, had a table set up with a survey of what students would like to see available at PVCC. Key said, “Fill out the Google doc survey with as many options as you would like to see enacted at PVCC, and it will be taken into consideration.” Students who completed the survey had the option to enter a raffle for a candy gift basket.