As the students of Gannon University count down the remaining days of the semester, the S.O.L.D office has done its part to make it easier for Gannon students to learn more about clubs and organizations.
Beth Shick, director of the S.O.LD office, announced the launch of EngageU, a new website available to all Gannon students that allows them to easily and effectively access information on different clubs and organizations in one place.
In previous years, the online form for joining a club or organization was buried beneath several pages within the gannon.edu website. The new EngageU site eliminates this problem.
The website makes the application process personal by allowing students to speak directly with the club or organization instead of going through the S.O.L.D office and creates a central repository of all engagement data including service hours, organization involvement and internships.
Shick spoke on the many advantages associated with the EngageU website.
“EngageU supports registered student organization administration through electronic forms and includes a set of tools for students to document involvement and out-of-the-classroom learning,” she said.
Kaitlyn Kissell, a freshman nursing major, said she thinks the website is a great idea.
“It not only helps the organizations, but it makes it easier for the students on campus trying to apply to get into these organizations,” Kissell said. “I think in today’s society, anyone would prefer to go online and have all of Gannon’s organizations in one place.”
Recently, several representatives from campus organizations attended training sessions to create their profiles on the EngageU website. The representatives met with Shick Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week.
Christine Peffer, president of Sigma Tau Delta, attended the Thursday session and said around 10 to 15 other student representatives attended the session. Peffer said she found EngageU to be very useful, because with the new site, club leaders can easily monitor members and their progress within the organization.
“It’s a nice way for all of the campus organizations to compile everything they do on campus on one location,” Peffer said. “Everyone has their own Portal page, Facebook page, and some organizations don’t even have that. So it’s nice that it’s all in one place, and you can find out what everyone else is doing.”
Alejandro Gamboa, a member of The Latino Student Committee, attended the training session for the new website on Thursday and said he enjoyed participating.
“It is going to be an asset to my organization because we get to put all our information in one place,” Gamboa, a junior sport and exercise science major, said. “The text messaging application will definitely help with contact between members.”
Arlene Montevecchio, director of the Center for Social Concerns, had great things to say about the website after the session.
“We are incredibly excited about this new way to give students more control over the way they serve,” Montevecchio said. “The online engagement transcript feature will also help students track their service hours with a greater degree of accuracy, which will be incredibly helpful in employment, postgraduate education and postgraduate service.”
Also, this website has tools to promote service opportunities for Gannon students and it has the ability to report on programs and engagement, which makes this website an asset.
The EngageU site is now live and can be accessed by logging onto my.gannon.edu and clicking on the EngageU button, which is located on the right-hand side of the screen below ANGEL.
The committee in the S.O.L.D office is working diligently and plans to do a full launch of the website in the fall when each organization has created its profile.
