One of the great things about being a university student is the opportunity provided to get involved with a student-run club or organization. One club at Brock University that has made an impact on the student population is the Brock Jewish Students Association. As a result of there hard work, the club was recently awarded a $400 sponsorship from CampusPerks. As a result I got a chance to sit down with Avital Sternin, President of the Brock Jewish Students Association to find out what impact this money was going to have on the club for the upcoming semester.

Avital was extremely grateful for the opportunity that CampusPerks provided her and her club. As we began to talk about her club, Avital went into great depth as to how CampusPerks had helped through publicity and club recognition in a large scale. The exposure the club had received from the CampusPerks website had opened many doors for the Brock Jewish Students Association. In addition the recent sponsorship would help the Brock Jewish Students Association to accomplish their current programs on a much larger scale.

As the second semester has begun at Brock, Avital made me aware of two major programs the club would be working on this semester. The first was the Jewish holiday of Purim and the second being a weekly lunch and learn series. The celebration of Purim is a Jewish holiday, which takes place every March commemorating the salvation of the Jewish people in Ancient Persia from Haman’s plot.

As part of the celebration the Brock Jewish Students Association will host a community food drive over the course and celebrate the week with a large celebration. At the same time the weekly lunch and learn will be open to all students with the opportunity to learn about such topics as “why be Jewish?” or “why do bad things happen to good people?” For more information on either of these events students can email the Brock Jewish Students Association at brockjsa@busu.net.

-Written by Dan @ Brock

CampusPerks has officially sponsored the Justice Studies Students Society’s Cops and Robbers Cabaret in support of local women’s shelters. The Cops and Robbers Cabaret will take place on January 21. The JSSS received sponsorship towards their event from CampusPerks; half of the funding will be used to print tickets, partner with beer companies and purchase door prizes. The remaining funding will be used towards their sponsorship of three African Children at the Glorious Orphanage in Tanzania. “Just $1050 sponsors three Tanzanian children for a year,” says Ashley Major, member of the JSSS. Much of the remaining funding to be sent to the Glorious Orphanage will come from the proceeds of another Campus Perks function. Check out the link to the Glorious Orphanage to find out how you can get involved.

http://www.gloriousorphanage.com/public/

The JSSS first became involved with CampusPerks when they heard about the Virgin Mobile’s On The House Campus Race. “After hearing what CampusPerks was all about, we felt like it would be a fun way for justice students to promote who we are and raise awareness about our causes. A lot of our events and projects require funding and we hoped that CampusPerks would be able to provide us with support that we could use for new and exciting projects,” says Ashley. The student club competed in and won the race and have been involved with Campus Perks ever since.

“CampusPerks has really brought the JSSS positive publicity. People who had never heard of our group began to contact us and ask how they could get involved with our initiatives. CampusPerks has certainly helped us monetarily as well. With the sponsorship and money raised [...] we were able to sponsor three children in Africa, give over $2000 to our local Food Bank, and donate hundreds of dollars to women centers in Regina. We also had a lot of fun getting involved with the challenges and really learned how to work together as a team. Thanks for everything CampusPerks!” – Ashley Major

-Written by Caitlin @ U of R

They are the most passionate student leaders.  They are the voices of the BBM Generation.

In October BlackBerry embarked on a hunt to discover the most passionate campus leaders and student trailblazers to inspire the BBM Generation and lead the BlackBerry Messengers. Over a hundred Canadian students applied for the chance to lead their generation into the future with the BlackBerry Messengers program, and after much deliberation, 17 Finalists were chosen. 

This diverse group of student leaders hail from Vancouver, British Columbia to Montreal, Quebec, and everywhere in between. These students have backgrounds that range from social planners, arts and dance groups to leaders of student clubs on campus. The one thing they have in common? A desire to make an impact on their campus and motivate their peers to do the same

Over the past two and a half months, these BlackBerry Messengers have taken their campuses  by storm; the students and their respective extracurricular involvements have been published in countless campus and local newspapers, featured on radio stations, and interviewed on campus TV stations.  They have inspired their campuses through student run flash mobs, campus lip dubs, unreal choreography and happiness challenges, that illustrate how creative and dedicated to success they are..

BlackBerry along with Rogers, Koodo Mobile, Bell and SaskTel swagged out these students with a $500 dollar scholarship and the latest smartphone technology –a new PlayBook, a new BlackBerry Bold, four BlackBerry smartphones for their top supporters, and tons of accessories to share with their campus.

10 weeks later, it all comes to a close. Crystal Lo and her STEP CREW from Queen’s University has been awarded with a $4000 scholarship  to lead the BlackBerry Messengers.

Crystal demonstrated her great leadership, creativity and organizational skills from the outset of the program when she was uniting her networks to support and vote for her, all the way through each event which she pulled off successfully with the help of her STEP CREW. From candy giveaways and dancing in the caf to a flash mob that brought out 500 students, a classy hors d’oeuvres social, and countless viral videos that included the infamous Shuffle Bot, Crystal excelled at instilling a sense of fun, spirit and unity amongst her whole campus. The tech-savvy STEP CREW not only stood out to the judges, but the media as well with many radio, blog and newspaper features from campus and local media. Crystal’s imagination and vision is truly an inspiration to students and communities across the country.  Thank you to all of the BlackBerry Messengers for inspiring your campus and a special congratulations to Crystal and the Queen’s STEP CREW!

 “We believe in the essence of equal opportunity, community and individualy…. anyone with a passion for dance can come together and be valued as individuals and be supported through self-growth and  self-exploration.” –Crystal Lo

-Written by the CampusPerks team