SRU hosting first annual Student Employee Appreciation Celebration, April 7
Laura Moyer, a senior industrial and systems engineering major, is one of nearly 1,500 student workers at Slippery Rock University and the SRU Payroll and Student Employment Office will celebrate them at an event April 7 as part of National Student Employment Week.
March 30, 2022
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — The Slippery Rock University Payroll and Student Employment Office is giving back to the student workforce by hosting a Student Employee Appreciation Celebration. The celebration will take place 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., April 7, in The Quad. In the event of inclement weather, the celebration will take place in the Smith Student Center Ballroom.
There are nearly 1,500 student workers on campus, which represents about 20% of enrolled SRU students. While the pandemic made it challenging for campus departments to rebuild the workforces they had before March 2020, the Student Employee Appreciation Celebration is intended for student employees to feel appreciated.
"Student workers do a lot of work in the departments," said Amanda Nichols, SRU student employment manager. "We want to make sure that they know how appreciated they are, and we want to celebrate them."
The celebration will offer several sources of entertainment to the SRU community such as music, tie dye shirt stations, inflatables, tattoo artists, giveaways, competitions, a cornhole tournament and more. Students who wish to enter the cornhole tournament must register online by April 1.
NICHOLS
Nichols said that when her department took over student employment, she was excited to implement some new concepts that would encourage growth in the SRU community. She researched online and found the National Student Employee Association, an organization of several hundred professionals involved with programs for working college students. The NSEA has declared the second full week of April as National Student Employment Week, and SRU chose to recognize the week with its April 7 celebration.
"We started talking about it, and we wanted to implement that here," Nichols said. "The more we encourage student employment, the more it helps students build their resumé for their future job searches."
The Payroll and Student Employment Office received several baskets and other items from sponsors of different departments on campus to make this celebration memorable for attending students. Event sponsors include Human Resources, the Student Government Association, Bailey Library, Graduate Admissions, the Student Employee Appreciation Celebration Committee, the SRU Dance Club, WSRU-FM, Campus Recreation, and other campus departments.
By opening this celebration to everyone in the SRU community, the Payroll and Student Employment Office hopes to attract more student workers to reap some of the benefits that on-campus jobs offer that off-campus positions may not.
"I think it's great that the University wants to do something special to show its appreciation for student workers," said Matthew Lyons, a senior communication major from Murrysville, who works at the information desk at Bailey Library. "At my campus job, my supervisor is very understanding and meets my scheduling needs because I am a student."
For more information regarding the celebration, contact Nichols at 724.738.2242 or amanda.nichols@sru.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Alex Conn | 724.738.4854 | adc1012@sru.edu