The NorthWest Arkansas Community College Student Ambassador and Government Association newly appointed representatives of 2019/2020 prepare to go on a day hike during their team-building retreat in August, 2019. SAGA members spent a week building relationships, completing training, and planning events for the upcoming school year.
 President Ronlisha Nichols and Representative Esther Enagbonma share information about SAGA with a new student at NWACC's Open House in August, 2019
Of all of the experiences I've had during the course of my academic career, perhaps no other has had such profound of an impact upon me as serving as an officer for the Student Ambassador and Government Association. I was a completely different person by the end of my one-year term as Director of Communications, with more confidence, more drive, more seemingly random skills (I still use Canva today to produce impressive school projects), a greater desire to serve my community, a more expanded network of contacts (and dear, sweet, life-long friends), and a deeper understanding of the world around me, and appreciation for the many and diverse people in it.
The Student Ambassador and Government Association of NorthWest Arkansas Community College serves a two-fold purpose. First, they are ambassadors, acting as a bridge between the student body and the college administration. That meant we were not only representatives for the students to the college, but often representatives of the college to the students. We were considered "student leaders" on campus, and spent a lot of time supporting college events that called for a more relatable face in order to make students feel comfortable and welcome. We did a ton of tours, and used our own perspectives as full-time students to offer advice and reassurance to not only prospective applicants, but to fellow students who may have needed a little extra direction (literally).  SAGA members prepare to lead a tour of 300 middle schoolers visiting NWACC in November, 2019
We were also given the opportunity to represent the college in community events as well, including the grand opening of the new Integrated Design Lab in September of 2019 and the Washington County Campus in December of 2020. Both of these events served as fantastic opportunities for us as students to make connections within the community. Not all of our community events were quite as formal, however, as SAGA also hosted NWACC's annual Fall Festival for around 600 people in October of 2019.
SAGA was also often relied upon to to use their role as student leaders in order to encourage students to take action, such as hosting a party to celebrate filling out the annual student survey, advertising the opening of NWACC's new walking trail, registering and voting in upcoming local elections, or inviting students to meet the college president and voice their concerns at a Pizza with the President event. SAGA also hosted at least one student event on their own every month during the Fall 2019 term (and had monthly events planned for Spring 2020 as well), including Welcome Week, Club Fair, LatinX and Native American Heritage Months, the We Box It food drive, and Finals Stress Relief Events.  Dr. Matthew Evans, Professor of Political Science, introduces panelists for the Constitution Day Roundtable co-hosted by SAGA and the NWACC Honors Program in September, 2019
My biggest motivation for applying to SAGA, however, was to ensure that non-traditional students (like myself) had a voice on campus. Attending college as a non-traditional student can come with its own unique challenges, from balancing school and family life to navigating new technologies used in the classroom to feeling isolated from younger classmates.
As representatives of the student body to the college, we held weekly office hours and practiced social listening, so that we could address student concerns and voice student needs and preferences about issues ranging from which foods to serve at events to feeling safe on campus. SAGA also hosted, in conjunction with the Honors Program, a Constitution Day Roundtable discussion panel featuring SAGA President Ronlisha Nichols, and Emeritus Professor Dr. Stephen Smith and Director of Gender Studies Dr. Lisa Corrigan of the University of Arkansas. During the roundtable, panelists discussed students' freedom of speech on college campuses and gave students the opportunity to ask questions about their rights. Free expression is a student right for which protection of is one of SAGA's highest priorities. That's why a SAGA representative also serves on NWACC's Free Expression Protection Team, which serves to monitor policies and practices to ensure that students' First Amendment rights are upheld.  Slide presented by Assistant Director John Curnutt of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response at the FEMA Region VI Higher Ed Conference at Arkansas Tech University in October, 2019
Listening to students' concerns is one thing, of course. Enacting change is another. That is where the second fold of SAGA's purpose comes in: Government. Each member of SAGA is encouraged to develop initiatives designed to resolve concerns or make improvements to the campus. Once developed, our initiatives would then be presented by us to the NWACC Board of Directors for evaluation and (hopefully) approval. Through these initiatives, SAGA has been able to enact programs such as free bike rental on campus, adding a Fall Break to the academic calendar (we were the only college in the area at the time that didn't get one), and offering free feminine hygiene products on campus.
As an Emergency Management major, my goal during my term was to develop a Campus Mitigation and Preparedness initiative which would entail several programs in order to facilitate a more resilient campus. I began by attending the FEMA Region VI Higher Ed Conference at Arkansas Tech University in October of 2019. Based on the insights I gained from this conference, I determined that the areas I would like to focus on most in my initiative included an Alternative Instruction Plan, should in-person classes become inaccessible (due to damage or pandemic), mitigation for active attacker situations (such as training exercises and door stops in classrooms), and personal preparedness messaging geared toward students (like reminders to keep winter weather kits in their cars). I had just begun to explore these focal areas by the end of the Fall 2019 semester, and had plans to develop my initiative for presentation in Spring 2020.  SAGA members prepare bags from the NWACC food pantry for students experiencing food scarcity in anticipation of campus closure in March, 2019
Of course, as we all know, Spring 2020 had other plans. As it became more apparent that it was not going to be a typical semester, SAGA began to refocus its efforts on staying connected with students and ensuring that they were still informed of the resources available to them, even if we couldn't come to campus. Our presence, like much of the world, shifted online, and social media became more important than ever, as we pushed out messaging about verified CoVid-19 information, Cares Act funding, mental health awareness, school policy changes, and reassurances that students were not alone. Many of our student events were cancelled, while some of them, like NWACC's first ever Out of the Darkness Campus Walk for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, transitioned to Zoom.
By the time my stint at NWACC was over and my term as Direct of Communications had come to an end, I had spent an entire year with some of the most unique, inspiring, dedicated, and just plain human students, staff, faculty, and administrators I will ever know. Despite the time and effort that we as SAGA members put into serving the students and administration of NWACC, I feel like I personally got so much more back in return. From being able to work with some incredible people with backgrounds as diverse as their home countries (including the U.S., Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Malaysia, and Haiti), to the concepts I learned in the diversity, equity, and inclusion classes which I still refer to in my volunteer work today, perhaps my biggest takeaway from my time in public administration is gaining a special appreciation for meeting people where they are. "You don't know what you don't know," I like to say. "So you should go find people who do." Building strong relationships across diverse groups is vital in emergency management. We serve a vast and differing span of stakeholders, from the Veteran who struggles with functional needs that just lost his home in a tornado, to the single mother of three young children whose neighborhood has just been evacuated due to a hazardous waste spill, to the pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation who is worried about how his parishioners are going to stay warm through an ice storm, to the local bookstore owner whose entire inventory has been ruined by a late-Spring flood. No matter which "public" we are "administering" to, we must remember that every single person we ever serve is going to have their own unique story, perceptions, experiences, fears, and desires. That for every person that comes to us with a need, that need may be very different or mean something very different, from every other person, including ourselves. But that every single one of these people, no matter how different they may appear, are still human beings that deserve respect, validation, dignity, compassion, and consideration--as it is defined by them.  SAGA members meet via Zoom for their weekly administration meeting after NWACC transfers to online learning for the remainder of the Spring 2019 semester
When you serve others in compassion and respect (and you've made a concerted effort to understand them enough to know what compassion and respect mean to them) you develop an incredible fondness for them. I believe, similar to the time and effort you put into serving those you love, that as you sincerely and willingly sacrifice, you begin to develop a love for those you serve. You can't help it. You don't necessarily mean to get attached. It just kind of happens.
I've since graduated from NorthWest Arkansas Community College, having transferred to Arkansas Tech University in Fall of 2020 to complete Bachelors degrees in Emergency Management and Psychology. But deep down inside, I know that NWACC will always be my home. I got attached. I couldn't help it. It just kind of happened. Working for and alongside my NWACC family not only changed my perceptions, but opened my eyes to the notion that there are actually many, many different perspectives outside of my own, each of them equally beautiful, valuable, and needed. They've completely changed the way I see the world and the people in it, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity I was given to serve. Vertical Divider
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I had the pleasure of working with Misty on the Student Ambassador and Government Association at NWACC. Misty was very knowledgeable of marketing and branding our team. She single-handedly took our team to a whole new level of acknowledgment by the staff and our peers. She was an instrumental part of keeping our team together. I was really impressed with her ability to multi-task, and her ability to change hats on the drop of a dime. I was very fortunate to have worked alongside such an intelligent, passionate go-getter! -Ronlisha Nichols
President Student Ambassador and Government Association 
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