Parkland awards student and faculty at annual banquet

Greg Gancarz

Editor

Parkland recently held its annual Inter-Organizational Council Awards Banquet, recognizing achievement amongst those involved with the college’s student organizations.

The IOC banquet is an event “focused on recognizing the successes and accomplishments of student leaders, student organizations, and advisors on campus,” according to Josh Clark, Parkland’s Activities Program Manager. Several student scholarships were awarded in addition to numerous awards.

The banquet began at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the U-wing’s main lounge area and served several pasta dishes, salads and desserts to attendees, of whom about three dozen were in attendance, most in semi-formal attire. The food was catered by Olive Garden. After guests began eating, Clark took to the front of the cafeteria to make opening statements about the event and the hard work the students, organizations, and staff put in this year.

“One of the reasons I was excited to take this job was because Parkland makes such a commitment to the students. It’s more than just pushing you out the door with a degree in your hands, and that made a big difference for me,” Clark said.

After Clark’s opening statements, Dean of Students at Parkland College Marietta Turner took the microphone to state similar sentiments regarding the work ethic of those involved with Parkland’s extracurriculars. After Turner spoke, Clark once again took the stage to begin announcing the first recipients of the night, beginning with the three student scholarships.

Of the scholarships being awarded, Clark said, “Three awards are not enough.”

Nafissatou Maiga, one of the scholarship recipients, said she was happy to win the honor.

“I didn’t expect it until I got the call from Rod [Lovett],” Maiga said, referencing the director of Parkland’s Student Life department.

Regarding her favorite memories at Parkland, Maiga said, “It’s mostly the events we have at the [International Student Association], whether it’s the karaoke or the Pakistani event we had, it’s awesome, always. It’s because of the students.”

The next award to be given was the Organization of the Year, which was presented to Parkland’s Student American Dental Hygiene Association, which is frequently active on- and off-campus with their charitable services.

“I think we all feel pretty honored. We did take three Saturdays out of our time this year and gave it back to the community,” said Jena Rogers, one of the SADHA members present for the receiving of the award. “We have a good group to volunteer with. Our program is very tight.”

Rogers said they had no idea that they would be winning the award and said that’s not why they did it.

“We never expect anything back…At our last event, Dental Day, my last patient hugged me and asked to take a picture with me because he came in with his smile all messed up and he left with it perfect because we filled all of his front teeth and he looked like a brand new guy,” Rogers said. “That’s where you’re kind of just like, ‘This is why I’m doing it.’ What we get back is seeing the smiles on the faces and seeing the difference we make in the community, but it will be fun to hang an award.”

The next award, Advisor of the Year, went to Charles Larenas of Club Latino, who said it felt great to be recognized by his students. Abigail Izard, the student who nominated Larenas, said she nominated him because of his commitment to students.

“He’s always willing to give up his time so that we can all have fun and learn. It’s really inspiring to see that because I want to be a teacher that does that someday,” Izard said.

The final award was for outstanding achievement and went to Emily Grumish.

“It feels amazing,” Grumish said. “It’s great that I’ve gotten the opportunity through Parkland to go to different events and support my organization this way. I’ve learned a lot of leadership skills and how to be more outgoing as a person, and a better student.”

Michael Trame, vice president for student services at Parkland, said “It’s just such a great celebration of all the hard work. Josh and the folks in Student Life put in so much work all year trying to create that engaged environment.”

“This is just such a fantastic way to celebrate all of that,” he said. “It gives the students a chance to have a last hurrah with each other before they splinter over the summer, but to also use it as a way to invigorate things coming in to next fall. We’re so blessed to have them put on an event like this.”