Student ambassadors have more responsibilities, tasks
By Rachel Luchmun
The job of student ambassadors is expanding to better serve the college community. Involvement both in the classroom and through events provides a connecting point for students.
Mindy Kinnaman, manager of Student Life and Leadership Development, said the student ambassadors’ duties originally included overseeing the student lounge and campus center and providing outreach services to other areas.
“This has changed since then,” Kinnaman said. “They have new responsibilities and tasks. The ambassadors now work with different campus departments…They are on campus helping students before the semester starts.”
Student ambassadors have helped with the planning of the Cavalier Film Festival and were greeters and ushers at the Olathe Health Education Center (OHEC) dedication. Recently, they were involved in the Strengths Workshop, where they helped students get connected.
“They show students the importance of being engaged on campus,” Kinnaman said. “They’re basically telling the students, ‘Yes, you can do this.’”
Student ambassadors organize a variety of events for students to take part in, such as gaming tournaments and other events throughout the semester.
Alex Donald, who has been a student ambassador for three months, said the job is very rewarding.
“You get to meet new students, help them enroll in classes,” Donald said. “We host events and get to meet students, and then the students have someone familiar who they already know.”
Donald also said he believed the student ambassadors will be called upon more as more people know about them.
Keith Davenport, Student Life coordinator, directly supervises the student ambassadors. He said the number of student ambassadors will grow in the future.
“We provide students with a connecting point,” Davenport said. “For example, we have been visiting developmental reading classes to offer tutoring. I foresee the amount of classrooms we visit to increase, to visit classes from other departments.”
Additionally, there are discussions for the student ambassadors to be part of the Early Alert team and to increase their participation within the Career Center.
Contact Rachel Luchmun, staff reporter, at rluchmun@jccc.edu.
Editor’s note: several corrections have been made to this story in the online edition that will not be found in print.