EvCC’s Student LIFE Kick-Off:

After a year and a half of laying dormant, the Jackson Center Courtyard, at the heart of the EvCC campus, lit up in a big way. There were a plethora of excited and lively students, dancing and socializing with big bags of goodies in their hands, all under the view of a DJ rocking a booming melody of pop, hip-hop and R&B from the Parks Student Union’s balcony. It was a fantastic time, an event that Student LIFE has been waiting a long time to host.

Though the EvCC Student LIFE Kick-Off is an annual tradition, the students and faculty representing the department have had a lot more to celebrate this year. While this wasn’t Student LIFE’s first on-campus event since reopening, it was their first post-pandemic opportunity to interact directly with students. Something they couldn’t safely do for 18 months.

The long span of time where being online was our only option has led to its fair share of problems for Student LIFE. One of which was not having knowledge on what the current student body wants from in-person events. For Julianna Litovchenko, coordinator of the Trojans Activity Board (TAB), this made planning for the fall season unnecessarily stressful, as her team had to work with assumptions ​rather than data-driven facts. “We just kinda had to guess for the entirety of fall,” said Julianna. The solution to this issue? Kettle corn, of course.

At the kick-off, you could get your hands on a big bag of tasty kettle treats for free. In exchange, all you’d have to do is fill out the official TAB survey. It’s a very extensive questionnaire, asking students about what events they’d attend, what prizes they’d want to win, even what genre of music they prefer. Every question that is answered helps point Student LIFE in a clearer direction for the future. “Hopefully, by winter, we’ll have the results we need and will be better able to accommodate the people on-campus,” Julianna said.

Even as the months go on and campus life grows more comfortable with the “new normal”, Student LIFE is not forgetting the virtual students who gave it life through the last 18 months.

Even as the months go on and campus life grows more comfortable with the “new normal”, Student LIFE is not forgetting the virtual students who gave it life through the last 18 months. This was made clear by TAB manager Nadia Rozi. “We still do virtual events for someone who, for example, is in their home country and can’t come here due to COVID-19. We definitely have virtual events coming.” Those events include game show-esque experiences like “Name That Tune!” and “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” which everyone can join, regardless of their location.

The hard-working members of Student LIFE, though honest about the current challenges they were all facing, were generally optimistic about EvCC’s future. This includes student ambassador Jake Avilla who, after a year of experiencing college online, is excited to actively

If you would like to learn more about upcoming Student LIFE events, you can check the schedule at Upcoming Student LIFE Events | Everett Community College (everettcc.edu).

If you’d like to participate in the TAB survey, click the link below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jaythzvwYWzWXggSly3fD36O4EooP39aiaQnSr20uRI/edit
(DISCLAIMER: Please only fill out the survey if you are a current EvCC student.)