Does your campus take ownership of an outrageously successful program, event, or idea? Are there any activities, service projects, or theme weeks on your campus that you have had success with? NCSL wants to know about them!
At each conference, several student leaders participate in our Trendsetters! program, a contest to highlight the best programs, events, and ideas from campuses across the country.
If your submission is selected as one of the top Trendsetters! programs, events, and ideas, you will be invited to share your submission with all NCSL conference delegates at the closing breakfast of the conference. The top three Trendsetters! will receive a monetary award of up to $100!
How to Participate
Complete the idea submission form on the Conference Extras page within each conference. NCSL staff will contact you within one week of the conference with additional details if your idea is chosen to be included in the Trendsetters! workshop at the NCSL you will be attending!
At the Conference
At the conference, the chosen participants will present their selected entries at the Trendsetters! workshop. Participants are encouraged to bring handouts or outlines of their program to share during the workshop. Workshop participants will rate the presented programs to determine the top Trendsetters!
Past Trendsetters!
NCSL Spring 2008 Top 3 - Atlanta, GA (March 29 - April 1, 2008)
Textbook Rental Program
Adrian Del Rio, Southwestern Community College
This joint textbook rental program between the Associated Student
Organization and Campus Store piloted in spring 2006. The program was
created in an effort to reduce the costs students incur purchasing
textbooks every semester. The average cost of a textbook prior to the
beginning of the rental program was $100. The first textbook rental
program for a San Diego county college or university, this program made
an immediate impact. Starting with just 30 copies of 5 titles (a total
of 150 textbooks) in the areas of Math, Economics, Biology, and Health,
the rental fee for each book was approximately $20. The program has
grown significantly since then.
The initial investment of
$15,000 yielded student savings of over $11,000 for the spring 2006
semester! This program began receiving district funding during the
summer of 2006. As of the fall 2007 semester, total student savings on
textbook costs was approximately $160,000. At the time of the NCSL
conference in Altanta, GA (March 29 – April 1, 2008), Southwestern
Community College had 13 titles and over 600 copies of textbooks
available for rental, with the plan to have nearly 1000 copies
available for the fall 2008 semester.
The anticipated total savings
for students after the 07-08 academic year was $250,000. The
Southwestern ASO shared this program to encourage other community
colleges to consider a textbook rental program. This can be a
successful program on any campus – as long as you take all the
necessary steps and work together with your administration, your
bookstore and your district!
Splash!
Chris Kennedy, MIT
Splash
is the main event of the Educational Studies Program, and takes place
the weekend before Thanksgiving each year, with MIT students and
community members teaching high school students. In 2007, 1700 high
school students attended Splash on the MIT campus for 400 classes
taught by 250 teachers. Splash hopes to reach 2000 students in 2008.
The teachers and approximately 25 student administrators who run the
program are all volunteers, as are the security staffers from the MIT
community who run errands, assist lost parents and students, and help
out all day. The registration fee for participating high school
students is $30 for the 20-hour weekend of classes, but the fee is
waived for any student who demonstrates financial need.
Classes
encompass a dizzying variety of subjects. There are many serious
academic classes, like Goal-Oriented Machine Learning, The Sonnet, and
The Riemann Hypothesis. Then there are borderline subjects and unique
applications, like Markov and Baseball, Programming Video Games in
C/C++, and Chemistry Magic. Finally, there are fun classes that border
on the absurd, like Tasseography, Pulling the All-Nighter, and Learn
Tolkien’s Elvish. In short, teachers are encouraged to "teach
anything!", and they do. Students come to learn things they wouldn’t
see anywhere else.
Though it requires a great deal of time and
effort on the part of the volunteers who run it, Splash is an
incredibly rewarding experience, and is an excellent way to build
leadership abilities.
Food Stamp Enrollment Program
Jenavia Thompson Weaver, Community College of Philadelphia
Although
hunger is a problem in communities throughout the US, there is often a
stigma in applying for food stamps at county offices. Community College
of Philadelphia has provided an alternate way to address hunger.
Philadelphia L.E.A.D.S-Community Service Subcommittee members and
alumni have established an on-campus site for food stamp enrollment.
Philadelphia
L.E.A.D.S members primarily conduct food stamp screenings at an
on-campus community site. They determine if clients are eligible for
the program, estimate potential monthly benefits, and assist clients in
the initial stages of the application process. Students are also
involved in the campaign in many other ways, including staffing the
Food Stamp Information Hotline, assisting with data entry and analysis,
conducting follow-up calls with clients, helping with projects to
improve customer service at the County Assistance Offices, and
organizing Food Stamp Information Fairs.
The Food Stamp Program is
our nation's number one defense against hunger. In Philadelphia, the
Food Stamp Program serves an average of 300,000 people each month, with
an average monthly benefit of $97 per person. Families who receive food
stamps can improve the nutritional values of their diets and redirect
money to meet other essential needs such as day care, transportation,
and shelter.
