Many students fail to recognize that the university is part of an even larger community in the city of Columbia and surrounding areas. Members of Freshman Council hope they can assist students and student organizations to be proactive in the local community and promote positive change for fellow students and residents.
According to their website, the council is a diverse group that works as an entry-level organization for Student Government and asserts leadership and community involvement regarding issues at USC and in the Richland County area.
The council is made up of several committees that focus on different areas and potential projects and programs throughout the year.
Two members of the council’s Public Relations and Outreach Committee, first-year economics and undeclared students Mickey Fennell and Alex Sobelman, respectively, hope that the Freshman Council can make the relationship between the university, its students and the community a strong one.
“Our goal on this committee is to really kind of integrate the community of Columbia with the community of the University of South Carolina,” Sobelman said. “There are so many clubs and different organizations that really try to ... get involved and do a lot of community service, but not a lot of people know about them, and not a lot of people are aware of what they can do. So we’re trying to facilitate the process of getting these clubs more involved in the community.”
Fennell and Sobelman said that the council helped initiate programs such as the alcohol-free tailgate and many others. They also hope to increase involvement in community projects such as Cocky’s Reading Express, which allows university students to donate books for and read aloud to elementary school children.
They hope that Freshman Council will continue to create programs, with help from Student Council and the university, that encourage local involvement and activism by students and student groups.
“Other clubs — not just people as individuals — can come to us, and if they have ideas or things they want to do, maybe we can help facilitate. [That] would really get the news out there,” Fennell said. “It can be a big deal to just a few people but it still matters, and we’d love to help. So they can always come to us ... because everybody’s willing to help and everybody’s super passionate about what they do.”