By: Piper Crabtree
While all honors students go through courses required by the Honors Program, not many take a class assignment and build a committee designed to improve the college experience for first-year students. However, first-year students Cayla Oldenburger (Psychology), Jake Kuchenbecker (Data Analytics and Computer Science), and Will Meszaros (Business Administration in Management) are creating the foundation of what is now known as the Communio Committee, which strives to do just that.
All honors students take “Life at SNC”, a class designed to demonstrate skills and resources at St. Norbert College for successful academic scholarship. While there are many benefits and positive memories for honors students going through this course, one of the many highlights is the Reimaging Bergstrom project. In this project, students form groups and discuss how the first-year honors dorm can be altered to better establish communio and quality of life on campus. Oldenburger, Kuchenbecker, and Meszaros decided to take this project one step further and build the Communio Committee, putting the ideas of their classmates into action. Through this, they hope to enhance the college’s values, as well as change the physical appearance of Bergstrom to display a better spiritual and emotional environment.
While the idea sprang from the Reimaging Bergstrom project, it is not the only reason the Communio Committee was created. Oldenburger mentions that in her experience with the Student Government Association, she has learned of a decrease in student enrollment. She claims that part of the reason for the low enrollment rate is the physical appearance of the buildings on campus and the atmosphere they provide. The committee hopes that through the work they are doing, they will be able to encourage prospective students that St. Norbert College is a wonderful institution and community to be a part of.
In order to move forward with their goal, Oldenburger, Kuchenbecker, and Meszaros began by collecting student feedback and ideas on renovations. In their eyes, Bergstrom should be a social place that honors students look forward to coming back to at the end of their day. In order to understand everyone’s perspectives on what this means, committee members sent out a survey. Additionally, members looked through previous projects and shared their own ideas of how to promote communio in Bergstrom Hall. While they can not share what those renovations are at this time, we can expect future details and plans at some point in April.
Looking ahead to future years, the Honors Program hopes to grow and maintain the Communio Committee. These three honors students are laying the groundwork for future committees to build off of. Meszaros mentions that what they are doing for Bergstrom is a “growing process” which will only get better with more attention that is brought to the committee and the work they do.
When asked what members can take away from this experience, many benefits and learning opportunities were mentioned. Members said that it had shown them how to build something from nothing in order to empower and make change on campus, even as first-year students. It allowed them to step out of their comfort zone and improve conversational and social skills, as well as to learn how to take perspectives from their fellow honors students and incorporate them into a project without bias.
The Communio Committee believes that the physical space of Bergstrom should allow for the integration of a community. Furthermore, it’s important to continue to work towards ideas that lead to success in future enrollment and engagement. The work that Oldenburger, Kuchenbecker, and Meszaros are doing is leading to not only a better quality of life for future honors students, but one empowered by the college’s core values.
