Meet the New Staff for Stu­dent In­volve­ment

The Stu­dent In­volve­ment De­part­ment at Maryville has gone through sev­eral staff changes since the start of sum­mer. For­mer As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor Ally Crust and For­mer As­sis­tant Dean/​Di­rec­tor of Stu­dent In­volve­ment Brian Gard­ner re­cently ended their tenures. Crust had been at Maryville for 6 and a half years and Gard­ner for 16 years, both were Maryville alumni. Since these de­par­tures, the staff for Stu­dent In­volve­ment has ro­tated and added new mem­bers. Ebony Ram­sey be­gan as As­sis­tant Dean for Stu­dent In­volve­ment at the be­gin­ning of Oc­to­ber and Pe­ter Michel has taken over the role of Di­rec­tor of Stu­dent In­volve­ment.

The Stu­dent In­volve­ment de­part­ment fo­cuses on pro­vid­ing stu­dent en­gage­ment and lead­er­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties on cam­pus. Maryville cur­rently has 125 stu­dent or­ga­ni­za­tions and this num­ber is grow­ing con­tin­u­ously “We have new stu­dents com­ing to cam­pus in record num­bers, so we want to con­tinue to fos­ter ways for stu­dents to get in­volved and pro­vide lead­er­ship and en­gage­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for Maryville stu­dents,” Pe­ter Michel said.

“Any stu­dent can start an or­ga­ni­za­tion. It takes four stu­dents and a fac­ulty/​staff ad­vi­sor to do that,” Michel said. If you would like more in­for­ma­tion on start­ing your own or­ga­ni­za­tion or in­quir­ing about or­ga­ni­za­tions that al­ready ex­ist, fol­low this link.

“I’m look­ing for­ward to the Wash­ing­ton, DC Lead­er­ship Ex­change, the Dis­ney Lead­er­ship Ex­pe­ri­ence and con­tin­u­ing our strong re­la­tion­ship with The Na­tional As­so­ci­a­tion for Cam­pus Ac­tiv­i­ties (NACA). These trips and NACA pro­vide ad­di­tional ex­pe­ri­en­tial learn­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for our stu­dent lead­ers and we hope to ex­pand on these op­por­tu­ni­ties in the fu­ture within Stu­dent In­volve­ment.” These pro­grams also pro­vide op­por­tu­nity for Maryville stu­dent lead­ers to travel, meet and in­ter­act with other stu­dent lead­ers and staff at dif­fer­ent in­sti­tu­tions, and fo­cus on es­sen­tial learn­ing out­comes to en­hance their lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment.

Step­ping into Michel’s new role gives op­por­tu­nity for more in­flu­ence and in­ter­ac­tion with Maryville stu­dents. “I think we need to con­tinue lis­ten­ing to the stu­dents. What do stu­dents want? We’re go­ing to con­tinue to get that stu­dent feed­back on all fronts for in­no­va­tion, the CSE space or stu­dent or­ga­ni­za­tions,” Michel said. “You al­ways want to see that growth.”

“I’m re­ally ex­cited to have Ebony Ram­sey lead the Stu­dent In­volve­ment Of­fice. I’ve al­ways been ex­cited to work with stu­dents as an ed­u­ca­tor and coach, now I’m fur­ther de­vel­op­ing and en­gag­ing with stu­dents on a broader spec­trum with my new role as Di­rec­tor of Stu­dent In­volve­ment,” Pe­ter Michel said.

As As­sis­tant Dean of Stu­dent In­volve­ment, Ram­sey will over­see the stu­dent en­gage­ment team, in­clud­ing Pro­gram Co­or­di­na­tor Naomi Ishi­hara and Pe­ter Michel. Ram­sey is ex­pected to ad­vise Maryville Stu­dent Gov­ern­ment and pos­si­bly more or­ga­ni­za­tions be­gin­ning in the spring.

“I want to see how I can en­hance what is al­ready on cam­pus,” Ram­sey said. Ram­sey has sig­nif­i­cant past ex­pe­ri­ence in uni­ver­si­ties in­clud­ing Prairie View A & M, Florida South­ern Col­lege and Delaware State Uni­ver­sity. “I’ve worked on sev­eral home­com­ings at schools that have done it for years and years. I can uti­lize some of that ex­per­tise to have an even bet­ter home­com­ing next year.”

“I want to get to know cam­pus, the pro­grams and the cul­ture of Maryville. I’m re­ally a peo­ple per­son, I want to come in and get to know as much as pos­si­ble,” Ram­sey said. “If any­one sees me around, stop and say hello!”

CON­NECT, along with help from Stu­dent In­volve­ment, put on Maryville’s an­nual Fam­ily Week­end the week­end of Oct. 19-21. Fam­i­lies par­tic­i­pated in stuff­ing saint bernards, go­ing on ex­cur­sions around Saint Louis in­clud­ing the City Mu­seum and the St. Louis Arch. The new staff worked to­gether with the stu­dent or­ga­ni­za­tion to cre­ate a suc­cess­ful week­end for fam­i­lies to visit cam­pus, their stu­dents and to ex­pe­ri­ence a por­tion of Saint Louis to­gether.