Senior music education and performance major, Ben Reilly and junior music major, Manny Requenes talk about ESU Music opportunities in Webb Hall. The Department of music encouraged students to participate in various music events and performances. Yo Han Kim/The Bulletin

Students gathered in Webb Hall yesterday to find out about campus activities and take part in the annual Huge Activities Fair.

Ben Riley, senior music education major, helped run the Emporia State music program booth.

“The great thing about the music program here at Emporia State is that you do not have to be a music major to join an ensemble,” Riley said.

Emporia State currently has sixteen music ensembles. The choral ensembles include Community Chorus, Opera Theatre, A Cappella and Chamber Choir. Instrumental ensembles include Brass, Wind, Jazz, Percussion, Saxophone, and Chamber Winds ensembles, as well as Emporia Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Marching Band, Hornet Revue, Saxophone Quartet, Flute and Clarinet Choir.

Emporia State offers three music degree programs, which include Music Performance, Music Education and Digital Audio Recording. Riley said that Emporia State has a masters program in music and there are plans to add guitar to the music program.

The music department is planning a Music Day in Beach Hall on Feb. 8. There will be an opening recital at 9 a.m., with a 2:15 p.m. finale in Albert Taylor Hall. A jazz festival is planned for Feb. 14, also in Albert Taylor Hall, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a jazz concert finale at 7:30 p.m.

Russell Swanson, junior elementary education major, was also a participant at the Huge Activities Fair at the booth for CRU, formerly known as Campus Crusade For Christ.

“CRU is a non-denominational Christian group,” Swanson said. “We talk to people about our faith on campus.”

CRU meets every Thursday night at 7:11 p.m. in Cremer Hall, room 415. The Inner Bean, a coffee house at 1328 Exchange St., is hosting a Valentine’s Day CRU event at 7 p.m. on Feb. 10.

President of Newman Kansas Association of Nursing Students and senior nursing major Liem Halim helped with the Emporia State nursing program booth. Halim said ESU has a three-year nursing program, and that the tours for the program are done through Newman Regional Health.

“Great faculty sets us apart from other nursing programs,” said Mallory Bedford, senior nursing major. Bedford is the treasurer of the Newman Kansas Association of Nursing Students.

Steven Edwards

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The Huge Activities Fair is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. next Wednesday in the Union Square and Pedestrian Mall between Plumb Hall and Morse Complex.

“Basically, it is an opportunity for all the organizations on campus to promote themselves to students,” said Whitney McGinnis, graduate adviser for ASG and RSOs.

The Huge Activities Fair is an annual tradition held at the beginning of the fall semester and is designed to welcome all Emporia State students. It provides opportunities for students to know and participate in various student organizations.

“This year we’ve added another component in it in that we have some community service organizations from the community who will actually be here to promote themselves as well, and to talk to students about how they can help and can do community services for those groups,” McGinnis said.

There are about 14 different community service groups and non-profit organizations from towncoming to campus on both Wednesday and Thursday.

“Community service is being talked about a lot more, so we’re going to do what we can to give students more information, so instead of the students go to the groups, we can bring the groups to students,” McGinnis said.

Ellie Rivera, junior Elementary Education major, just transferred to ESU this semester.

“We don’t have that Activities Fair in my previous school. I am trying to join in UAC. So I can meet new people,” Rivera said.

To date, there are 45 student organizations that have already submitted the registration form for the Fair.

“Totally we have 130 student organizations on campus,” McGinnis said. “We are hoping we can get 75 or 80 organizations who will be there at the Fair.”

Luke Chiddix, President of Sigma Alpha Lambda-Society of Leadership and Honors, went to the Activities Fair last year and the year before.

“I will be hosting a table for Sigma Alpha Lambda-Society of Leadership and Honors,” Chiddix said. “My team is actually going meet tonight and we are going to discuss plans for that on our first meeting. We should have a pretty good time.”

Chiddix believes that the Activities Fair is a good opportunity for students to involve in the campus life.

“If a student really goes out and looks for organizations to join in and he is proactive, I think it’s a great time to find things to get involved with,” Chiddix said.

Han Yan/The Bulletin

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Students attend the Activities Fair, Wednesday afternoon at Memorial Square. Students attending the fair picked up information on many of the various student clubs and opportunities available on and off campus. Jennifer Baldwin/The Bulletin

Seventy five on-campus and community organizations participated in the Emporia State Activities Fair yesterday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on ESU Main Street to present extra-curricular opportunities to students.

“We want to get people involved at ESU,” said Michelle Hernandez, Center for Student Involvement graduate assistant, and organizer of the Activities Fair. “Since involvement is correlated with retention rate, the more you get involved the more successful you’re likely to be.”

Registered student organizations and Greek life chapters passed out flyers, gave away small gifts and took down names for those interested in participating.

“Holding this fair is a great idea,” said Harmony Tasker, junior music education major. “I wish more people would stop by and look at things. I know I’ve found new organizations just by walking through.”

Finding out that some organizations are not major specific surprises some new students, Tasker said.

“I am here working music club tables, but you don’t have to be a music major to get involved,” Tasker said. “All someone has to do to get involved with music is be able to play, and I am sure many students don’t know that.”

Community organizations used the activities fair to assist students in finding opportunities for involvement in the Emporia community that often go unnoticed.

“I think this is an excellent idea, since it gets community members up here and talking to students about getting involved with the community,” said Nancy Boyce, Lyon County History Society member and Emporia State Alumni. “It’s nice to build community awareness on the campus, and this gives me an opportunity to see what’s going on around campus.”

The ESU Activities fair was not available for students during the seventies, Boyce said.

“The only real orientation to the campus, or its clubs, was a bunch of students going from building to building talking about their experiences,” Boyce said. “I was really involved with the theatre program here and I was an ambassador.”

Planning for the event began in early August.

“I started sending out promotional materials around the first of August,” Hernandez said. “We moved to using post cards this year, and we sent them to community organizations that are registered with Community Hornet, and we put them in all of the RSO’s (registered student organizations) mailboxes.”

With weather permitting the Activities Fair was to continue as scheduled, RSOs avoided the hassle of rescheduling the event as in years past.

“I hope that new students will see all that Emporia State has to offer,” Hernandez said. “I also really appreciate all the organizations that took the time out for this event.”

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LEAD Emporia accepting applications

Applications for the LEAD Emporia program are due Sept. 4. Students who wish to participate can find the applications at www.emporia.edu/csi/lead/LEADEmporianew.htm or in the Center for Student Involvement. The program is designed to help students get to know the Emporia community while meeting important figures and creating volunteer opportunities said Olivia Drumm, graduate assistant in Leadership Development.

The program will include six dates where students will be invited to meet with local business owners, tour businesses and learn about commerce in Emporia. Visit sites include the court house, Hopkins Manufacturing, the Chamber of Commerce, the recycling center and the water treatment plant. Students will get to meet the City Commissioner and talk with a panel of non-profit organizations.

LEAD Emporia will take about 25 students and is open to anyone.

Huge Activities Fair

The Huge Activities Fair will be held on Sept. 2. The deadline for organizations to reserve a table will be tomorrow. Applications can be found at http://www.emporia.edu/csi/haf/.

Currently there are about 55 organizations that have already reserved tables, said Michelle Hernandez, business administration graduate student. Students will find recognized student organizations, university departments and schools and community service organizations at the fair. Hernandez said that the Center for Student Involvement would like to offer as many tables as possible for organizations to get their names out.

In case of bad weather, the Activities Fair will be moved to Sept. 9.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity will have a ground breaking ceremony on Sept. 4 in honor of a new project starting at 215 S East Street. The family, who has a daughter in a wheelchair, also contacted the Make-A-Wish foundation, who will be building their daughter’s bedroom.

The project will take about 8 months, said Sally Conard, secretary of the Habitat for Humanity board. The group will work on Saturdays and needs about 10-20 volunteers each week. To find out more about volunteering, contact Steve Weiser at 620-366-0486 or weiserst@yahoo.com.

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