Brown Bag Cafe awarded Meramec Innovation of the Year award
By: DALILA KAHVEDZIC
Art and Life Editor
Throughout the academic year, teachers, directors, counselors and staff from various departments meet for the Innovation of the Year presentation at STLCC – Meramec. During these seminars, they exchange ideas to better the campus and help students.
The seminars came about from a program called The League for Innovation in the Community College, an international nonprofit association that is committed to helping community college improvement.
The League for Innovation consists of the league’s board of directors who provide direction for continuing activities.
Not only does the League for Innovation consist of leaders and community colleges, but it has more than 160 corporate partners as well.
According to Christaan Eayrs, co-chair of this seminar and STLCC-Meramec Mass Communications professor, four campuses (Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec and Wildwood) compete against each other. Each campus has numerous entries submitted.
Meetings are then held to choose the winner, and the winner from each campus then moves forward and competes at district level with the other three campuses.
When judging for the winner, five criteria which are derived from The League for Innovation are expected; quality, timeliness, replication, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
STLCC- Meramec Vice President of Student Affairs Kim Fitzgerald attended the Meramec presentation.
“Here’s the coolest things we’re doing on campus right now,” Fitzgerald said on the approach to the meetings.
Co-Chair and Assistant Art Professor Ken Wood was very open about the program.
“It helps to fulfill a need and make things efficient,” Wood said. “It was hard to choose because everyone was well-deserving of the award.”
Brown Bag Café was presented by Debora Bronson who is a part of the Student Assistance program and Service Learning coordinator Debbie Corson.
STLCC-Meramec Economics Professor Gail Hafer presented a canned good game that a few professors have conducted within their classes.
Academic Adviser at STLCC-Meramec Mysha Clincy presented the Parent Orientation Session.
In these sessions, new students would come to orientation while parents are taken into a separate room for 15-minute presentations and a Q&A session to address any questions or concerns they may have about their student starting their education at Meramec.
Parents are often concerned with topics such as transferring once their student is done with classes at Meramec, completion of FAFSA, campus safety, the A+ program, the enrollment process and emotional support.
“We want them to work with the students as an external source,” Clincy said.
This year’s Innovation of the year winner was the Brown Bag Café program, an on-campus food pantry for students.
