Picking a college was not a difficult decision for Cortney Parto. When she first set foot on Villa Julie College in fifth grade during a tour with her older sister, she found her place in the world.
She never stopped thinking about the campus.
“After high school, I applied to six schools and the only letter I cared about was Stevenson,” Parto said.
Parto graduated from Stevenson in 2017. But she’s back, and on Thursday afternoon in the Philip A. Zaffere Library she sat behind one of several tables at the Spring Kickoff. She was hoping to instill in today’s students the same enthusiasm she had for being active on campus a decade ago.
The snow that still blankets campus did not prevent the Student Government Association (SGA) and the School of Design, Arts, and Communication (SODAC) from planting some metaphorical seeds of activity at the second annual kickoff. The seeds watered colorful conversations, which bloomed bridges between faculty and students.
Parto is now a senior enrollment counselor at Stevenson University Online. She had the best seat in the house on Thursday. As she looked over the bright green Stevenson Online informational table, her gaze filled with a community that has given her direction for nearly two decades now.
Dean and Senior Vice Provost Academic Affairs Amanda Hostalka remarked that the goal of the Spring Kickoff is to remind the students that they are not alone.
“You get the synergy of all the different majors connecting with each other,” Hostalka said.
Serenaded by a soundtrack of Lo-fi music and bathed in the low light of the library’s event space, students mixed and mingled with majors that differed from their own.
Coco Wallace, a second-year psychology major with a minor in communication, is founder of SU’s American Sign Language club, and a starter on the conference champion SU women’s field hockey team. Wallace stated that events such as the kickoff give her a clear sense of the diverse community within SODAC.
“It is awesome to be able to connect with people who are into communication but also getting the opportunity to be exposed to the design world is nice as well,” Wallace said.
Students like Wilson Larios, a second-year theater and media performance major, said that he has found a place on campus through his conversations with peers and professors.
Fourth-year graphic design major and SGA representative Hailey Rieger said that she has found profound purpose playing a part in starting the Spring Kickoff tradition. She further remarked that the characteristics of the SODAC community were clearly visible during the event.
“SODAC sometimes gets disconnected between all of our different majors,” Rieger said. “So, it’s just nice to see everyone come together because we are just creatives, we all like to talk, and we all like to get involved.”
Throughout the event, seeds of new friendships sprouted via handshakes and laughter.
The eight clubs and organizations that dotted the PAZ event space acted as a reminder for over 60 attendees that the School of Design, Arts, and Communication is filled with creative communicators, diligent designers, and fabulous fashionistas.
“It is an event that brings people together as a community not for something like an assignment or like a have to, but a get to,” Hostalka said. “And I feel like we have achieved that.”
