If you’re involved in Student Life in any way, you’ve likely seen Christina O’Brien around campus. She’s the director of Student Life, which means she works on a bunch of events on campus for students, like WOW Wednesdays and Welcome Week events.
Meet Christina!
How would you describe your job?
I’m responsible for overseeing the cocurricular and extracurricular student experience, which is all the great ways students get involved and learn outside of the classroom. When you think about things like student clubs, student activities, service projects, and sports, you are thinking about Student Life.
Where have students most likely seen you around campus?
Everywhere! Usually running from one place to another with a wagon of weirdness I’m dragging around. Our department supports a lot of great opportunities for students all over campus, and those opportunities always have fun and interesting needs. You can find me giving a presentation at TRIO, or helping out at a WOW Wednesday event in the commons, or getting my diet soda fix at one of the food service areas. My home base is in the Student Life Center over by the Fitness Center and gymnasium.
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
It is always the students. I love the diverse and wonderful individuals I get to work with every year and be a part of this leg of their journey. Anytime I even mention considering a different job my husband asks “… but would you enjoy it as much?” My job always has new exciting things to work on and is never boring, but the students are what make it so fun. While they are here to learn, I feel like I end up learning so much from them during their time spent with Ivy Tech, and I look forward to the new faces I get to meet every semester, even though its hard (but exciting) to say good-bye when they graduate.
What’s your favorite event on campus, the No. 1 thing all students should be sure to stop by?
I can only choose one?! That is really hard! I’m going to cheat a smidgeon and say Welcome Week. While it’s technically a whole week of events, that first week of the semester is always so exciting, and the events are always so fun. Students should definitely stop by as many Welcome Week activities as they can and meet new people and enjoy that first week fun!
If students are interested in getting more involved with Student Life, what should they do?
They should check out IvyLife (right there on the Home page of MyIvy) and look at the different events and student organizations. Then they should just try anything out that looks interesting. Stop by group meetings, attend an event, and make time to be involved. If you are really at a loss of what to do, just stop by the Student Life Office in SL107. We can help you find some things that might interest you, and we don’t bite (unless we are hungry).
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