The Big Event

An Overview of the Big Event

The Big Event began at Texas A&M University in 1982 when student leaders saw a need to give back to their surrounding community of Bryan-College station--a community that continually supported their university. Joe Nussbaum, vice president of the Student Government Association at Texas A&M took the initiative to make others aware of this need, and after a passage through the student senate, The Big Event was born. After 25 successful years, The Big Event is now an annual event at more than 60 major universities across the nation.

One of those universities is SCSU. The Big Event has been an event at SCSU for the past 4 years and has involved well over 1,000 students in service activities during that time. Students from clubs and organizations, athletics, residence halls, classes, and simply groups of friends, team up with faculty and staff from around the University to serve many agencies in the local community. This past year SCSU traveled to over 16 different sites around New Haven and performed over 1,200 hours worth of community service.

 

Big Event 2012 Registration Information

Step 1: Go to southernct.collegiatelink.net . Log-in to Collegiate Link.

Step 2: Click on the big event poster (same as one on the left) and read the registration instructions.

Step 3: If you are registering as an individual the select "individual registration."
If you are registering  as a group and are choosing a site provided by the committee the click on "group registration".
If you are registering your own site then choose "site registration".

 

Big Event 2012

This year the Big Event at SCSU will look a little bit different. In previous years, the committee would find volunteer opportunities for students then send all of them off on buses to the different sites. Sites included trash clean-up, painting, indoor cleaning, and other projects at various different agencies. Last year, student and groups had slightly more autonomy in their ability to choose their own sites. This year, the Big Event is moving towards even more autonomy for groups in giving assistance to students to find their own sites.

The idea behind the switch is that the Big Event committee wants the service to be as meaningful as possible for students and student groups. Allowing students to choose their own site gives them the opportunity to do something they are really interested in and makes the service feel more personal. For example, if a group is passionate about hunger, they could volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen. The big idea of events such as the Big Event is to get students more involved in their local community and they feel the best way to do this is to provide students with meaningful service opportunities.

 

This year we have 19 sites registered with the Big Event so far including:

AIDS Project New Haven

Boys & Girls Club

Christian Community Action

Common Ground High School

Coordinating Center for Children in Crisis

The Diaper Bank

Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen

Fellowship Place

Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership

Life Haven

Music Haven

New Haven Home Recovery

New Haven Parks & Recreation Easter Egg Hunt

New Haven Reads

Ronald McDonald House

Solar Youth, Inc.

Southern Connecticut State University Garden

West Haven Community House

YMCA - Hamden

 

If you are looking for more information on the Big Event comment below or e-mail the Service Team at scsuserviceteam@gmail.com.