The various offices and departments of the Student Life Division will be recruiting for new student leaders at the fifth annual Leadership Fair, to be held from 10 am to 1:30 pm on Friday, February 9 in the Hekman Library lobby.

“This is kind of one-stop shopping to learn about the different leadership opportunities there are—and hopefully learn about some new ones that are hiring,” says John Britton, associate dean of Student Development.

The range of student leadership opportunities is wide and varied, and they are represented by an alphabet soup of acronyms:

The residence life office will be hiring two positions for leadership in Calvin residence halls: resident assistants (RAs) to develop community and perform relational ministry and activity coordinators (ACs) to plan social events.

Also to be filled will be student positions funded under the Lilly Vocational Project: the Barnabas Team (which develops students’ spiritual lives through mentoring), Worship Apprentices (who lead worship in a variety of campus contexts) and Jubilee Fellows.

The Knollcrest East apartment community will be tapping student leadership for Knollcrest East Serving Others or KESO.

“They do service projects for the KE community,” Britton says.

The Multicultural Student Development Office will be hiring both MACS and members of MASB. The multicultural activities coordinators (MACS) plan events in each residence hall to promote anti-racism and diversity, and the MSAB plans campus-wide events—such as Unlearn Week in the fall—around the same issues.

The Service-Learning Center will also be hiring for a dozen or so positions, among them the community project coordinators (CPCs), who manage residence hall community partnerships and every year around Thanksgiving time host the wacky and lucrative residence hall auctions.

The Student Activities Office will be hiring cultural discerners (CDs) to create discussions about culture in the residence halls as well as members of the student activities board (SAB), who help the office book concerts and films for the upcoming year.

Two fairly new student organizations, the fashion advisory board (FAB) and the video gaming board will also be soliciting leaders: The first group plans, which exists to consider a Christian approach to fashion, hosts innovative fashion events. The second plans events that are just plain fun.

Britton will be hiring too. He needs orientation leaders for next year, and he’s serving root beer floats to snag them.

“We’ve had some orientation leaders who had never thought about leading in orientation and stopped by our booth. They had a good experience in Quest and thought, I could do that. And they’ve been successful,” he explains. And the root beer floats? “Each table is responsible for their own food,” he adds cryptically.

He thinks the fair is an ideal recruiting method.

“We want to attract a wide range of students—different interests and different backgrounds,” Britton says. “This gives students an opportunity, if they’re just walking by, to see ways they can be connected. It’s a great way for students to plug in and be connected on the college campus.”

He believes the event also encourages conversations about leadership.

“Leadership tends to be something that’s not talked about enough or taught enough. I think there are a limited number of students who see themselves as leaders. We hope to broaden that. That may depend on what your definition of leader is, but there are so many ways to use your gifts and talents to serve God’s purpose.”