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My Unconventional Path to Joining Student Government
So, I have a funny story about how I got involved in Student Government at Juniata College. Before I came to Juniata, I attended orientation. One of the speakers was the acting president, and he announced that he was planning on running a newsletter for the college. I expressed my interest, and he told me to attend a Student Government meeting once school started. I was sitting with three other freshmen who were all interested in joining the policy committee. After a week, they began inducting the freshmen who were interested in joining Student Government, and called for those interested in the policy committee to stand so we could be voted in. Not one of us caught what we were supposed to do, so he motioned for all four of us to stand, and we were voted in. That’s how I went from writing a newsletter to joining student government—possibly one of the best mistakes to ever happen to me.
Student Government is an independent, student-run organization with the goal of implementing the student body’s concerns to make the college a better place. Members of the Student Government communicate a lot with both faculty and the senior leadership team consisting of high-ranking employees in the college, such as the president, provost, and dean of students. Currently, we have had continuous contact with the campus life office, attempting to establish a new tradition on campus.
While my journey began by accidentally joining the policy committee my freshman year, I have since joined my class’s board as acting treasurer. I enjoyed my time and involvement in Student Government, so I decided to take on a higher position. As treasurer, I budget and track funds for my board to make sure we host many fun events on campus, building up to senior week for our class before we graduate. We’re also responsible for the senior gift our class will sponsor.
There’s so much hard work that goes into our projects, but it’s so rewarding seeing our work make a permanent impact on the campus. We’ve had a huge hand in a lot of policy changes at the school, and hosted tons of fun events for students. Seeing everyone benefit from our hard work and leave our events with big smiles reminds me why I spend so much of my free time working with Student Government. Showing interest in a newsletter was the greatest decision I’ve ever made.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at @jcclassof2025!
Juniata Mock Trial Team’s Season Wraps Up in Memphis
For the second year in a row, Juniata’s Mock Trial team (lovingly called the Legal Eagles) have made it to the National Championship Tournament. This year’s tournament was hosted by Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and the best schools in the country were there: Harvard, Yale, UCLA and of course, Juniata College.
The case being argued was a legal malpractice case. The plaintiff, Robin Skye, was wrongfully convicted of killing their spouse, and ten years later is suing their Defense attorney Aubrey Gold for not doing their job well enough. The team had to prep both the Defense and Plaintiff sides of the case for a little over a month.
As a junior at Juniata, this was my third year on the team and my second time going to Nationals. I have always loved the ability to make connections with other people on campus and people from different schools. This year was no different. During our four trials throughout the weekend, we got to meet and become friends with people from the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, New York University, and Haverford College. We also got to scrimmage Northwestern University, Macalester College, the University of Arkansas, Hillsdale College, and the University of Georgia. Overall, we finished in the top 48 teams in the country, although official rankings will come out later this summer, so stay tuned!
Mock Trial is of course a serious sport, but we also got to be tourists. From the iconic Bass Pro Shop Pyramid to the duck walk at the Peabody Hotel, we got the full Memphis experience, including getting barbecue at the Rendezvous restaurant. We spent a lot of time bonding as a team and making connections with the other teams we saw, including getting pizza with Macalester.
With the end of Nationals, the Mock Trial season is officially over. We started in August of 2022, and got to travel across the country, from Pittsburgh to Memphis to California. We have played teams as varied as Penn State University, Brown University, and even smaller schools like Wellesley College.
We look forward to the next year of Mock Trial, and the start of Mock Trial Bootcamp next August, where we welcome the new members of the team to campus. Stay tuned for next year’s season, where we will hopefully get a ticket to next year’s National Championship Tournament in Chicago, hosted by Loyola University!
A Transfer Student’s Goal to Complete Every Tradition at Juniata
When I came to Juniata College in 2019, my goal was clear—to complete every tradition on campus. Why? Well, as a transfer student who came to Juniata my junior year, I knew that I only had two years to try everything and to meet everyone. So, this is where my journey began
First, it was the fall semester in 2019 and I was living in Sherwood Hall with my freshman friends. We have a tradition at Juniata called Lobster Fest, where all of the clubs set up tables outside on the quad and students can sign up to be a part of them. We have over 100 clubs here at Juniata so our options are limitless. Me, being someone who wants to try everything, signed up for way too many clubs, so I received hundreds of emails welcoming me as a new member (oops)! For Lobster Fest, Juniata gets lobster all the way from Maine to feed all of the hungry new students. My friends and I sat on the grass on the quad and we dined on lobster, chicken, steak, and other delicious food! This was the first tradition on my bucket list to complete.
Juniata Esports: We Work Hard and Game Hard
Just like there is no one “right way” for a person to go about finding their place in the Juniata community, I didn’t join the JC Eagles Esports team the “right way.” I didn’t have any knowledge of who or what would be waiting for me when I followed the flyer leading me to the Super Smash Bros Ultimate Team tryouts. As I meandered through the front door of the ESports Lounge neighboring the Tussey and Terrace Dorms, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to be on the team yet. This doubt disappeared when the team captain invited me to take part in the tryouts.
Reinventing yourself the Juniata way
“College is a time to reinvent yourself.”
If only I could count how many times I’ve heard that phrase. Honestly, I thought the idea of reinventing yourself just because you’re headed to a place where no one knows your name was silly
The more I think about this now, I realize that “reinventing myself” is exactly what I’ve done. Well, by “reinventing” I don’t mean in a way that I completely changed who I am because I didn’t like who I was in high school and I had this chance to switch it up completely. It was more like I started evolving into a more well rounded person when I started to settle in at Juniata.
At the start of my freshman year, I told myself, as I’m sure many do, that I would try to push myself socially. My head was filled with key phrases like, “Get involved!” and “Make the most of it!” I was determined to do both of those things.
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