By Kylie Jacobsen, STC Member
I attended my first STC Summit in 2018 when it was hosted in Orlando, FL. The warm weather and theme parks were attractive enough, but what drew me to this Summit was a free registration because I attended as a student volunteer. I was able to attend one more Summit as a student before I graduated, but I haven’t missed once since I entered the workforce 3 years ago. Fortunately, I found a professional home in STC Michigan Great Lakes from the network I made as a student at Summit years before I graduated.
Students sign up to serve STC during the Summit for several reasons, such as receiving complimentary registration fees, learning aspects of technical communication beyond their college classrooms, and building their professional networks.
Over a dozen university undergraduate and graduate students will be volunteering several hours during STC’s Summit this year. So, if you’re interested in welcoming new or soon-to-be new professional members into your chapters after spring graduation, here’s where to connect with them at Summit:
Student volunteers will welcome you at Registration
Several students will volunteer during the week to register and welcome Summit attendees at the registration counter. Beginning as early as 7 am, our student volunteers will be available at the registration counter to hand out registration materials to attendees and answer questions. They will be asking for your name in order to check you in, but their names will be visible just about their “Student” flag on their name tag. You can get acquainted with the volunteers by exploring their LinkedIn profiles below.
Student volunteers will attend several education sessions
An added benefit to volunteering as a student is the complimentary registration fee, which allows them to attend education sessions in between their volunteer commitments. In fact, for many students, attending the education sessions will be their volunteer commitment. Approximately 10 minutes before each education session, you will see a student volunteer enter the room.
Speakers, as you settle into your room for your session, take a look to the back of the room where a student volunteer will silently be counting the number of attendees in the room. Please direct any technical issues with the room equipment to the student volunteer – they can get in touch with the Conference Committee or AV team quickly. Otherwise, students will introduce themselves, assist you with last minute requests, and offer time-keeping services.
Seek out student volunteers at social events
Students will also be present at the awards ceremony, during the resume review activity, and at the conference app help desk. But we do not put them to work the entire time. Student volunteers are signing up to the Summit Slack channel, will be joining on dinner and social outings in Chicago, and catching Lyfts to and from the airports.
To meet more students or brainstorm some ideas on how to recruit them to your professional chapter, consider joining the table discussion during CAC Leadership Information Exchange on Monday afternoon.
Meet the student volunteers!
You may find the student volunteers on LinkedIn or the conference app.
- Lizeth Anaya-Ojeda, New Mexico Tech
- Quinn Bustos, New Mexico Tech
- John Clement, University of Central Florida
- Summer Colins, University of Missouri – Kansas City
- Royce Cook, Arizona State University
- Riana Foley, New Mexico Tech
- Anatastasia Heau, New Mexico Tech
- Caitlyn Hunter, University of Central Florida
- Henry Keating, University of Central Florida
- Zachary Miller, University of Central Florida
- Edel Pace, University of Memphis
- Camilo Pallares, University of Central Florida
- Ann Marie Shrader, University of Central Florida
- Kristen Valero, New Mexico Tech
- Sarah Vilcnik, University of Central Florida
- Jiaxin Zhang, Texas Tech University