By Chris Ulicne,
Online Photo Editor

“Hopefully if you’re an officer in a club you’re getting as much out of it as you’re putting into it,” said Jaimie Steel, director of student activities and commuter life at Seton Hill University (SHU), as she knocked on wood.

That’s the very principle behind SHU’s plan to nominate one student club as “Organization of the Year” on April 11, 2006.

The criteria for clubs that hope to receive the award include, among other things, “involvement in campus life” and “contribution to membership development,” according to the application.

Steel, one of the advisors for the Seton Hill Government Association (SHGA), said that student clubs and organizations on campus are “always on” and participating in the SHU community.

She also said that students who are active in clubs have the opportunity to “help the university as a whole.”

All of the more than 40 student clubs and organizations at SHU and the students involved play a role in this development, according to Steel, and they have all promoted the growing community throughout the past year.

“So many of them are doing really great things,” she said.

The Student Activities Council (SAC) has continued to provide events for students both on and off campus every weekend.

The Make-A-Wish Club has sponsored fundraisers and charity events. The Math Club hosted a Pi Day celebration.

The CRAFT Club invited prospective students at a sleepover to join them for a meeting.

And the list goes on.

Of course, clubs don’t only have an impact on the community as a whole. They’re also rewarding and meaningful for the club members themselves, according to Steel.

Freshman Mary Tietjen, a member of SHU’s Make-A-Wish Club, said she enjoys her membership because the club “organizes fun and exciting events for a good cause.”

Tietjen is looking forward to playing an even bigger role in the club next year.

“I’m going to be vice president. I won!” she said, smiling.

A few students like their clubs so much that they put them ahead of their curriculums.

“We always have to miss class,” said a sophomore, Mark DeMaria, historian of the Biology Club, at a meeting attended by several other members.

“Mark and I are missing Spanish right now,” added a senior, Michael Whiteman, the club’s vice president.

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