For our first Campus Celebrity, we were excited to connect with junior Sydney Smith. Although we’re a fan of her cute dog Instagrams, there is so much more to this girl who devotes her time to serving the Xavier community by organizing plenty of events to keep us busy and making the freshman feel welcome on campus. Manresa, Xavier’s multi-day orientation program, is planned by Sydney and a group of hard-working core members of staff that spend a portion of their summer on campus to make sure the school year is kicked off right. You can also thank her and the rest of SAC (Student Activities Council), for all the discounted tickets to concerts and activities around Cincinnati as well as Muskies After Dark events on campus.
Year: Junior, Class of 2016
Hometown: Catawba Island, OH
Major: Psychology Major; Communication Arts Minor
Activities involved in: Manresa (Operations Coordinator), XU Chaarg (Event Coordinator), and Psi Chi/Psychology Club (treasurer). I have also been active in SAC, Acabellas, intramurals, and Community Action Day.
Other hobbies: DIY crafts, finding new parts of Cincinnati to explore, traveling, paddle boarding, and skiing.
Why did you pick Xavier University?
I actually ended up at Xavier by chance. During my senior year of high school, I didn’t know where I wanted to go to school, and I applied to multiple schools without truly considering my options. When the day came to make a decision, I was tired of my mom asking me where I wanted to go to school, so I just named the first college that I had been accepted to that came to mind. I chose Xavier, and it seems to be the perfect fit for me.
What influenced you to join SAC and Manresa?
In high school, I was president of Student Council, so I had prior experience with event planning (not to the same degree as SAC, but experience nonetheless). I really enjoyed it and wanted to continue with that. As far as Manresa goes, I had a great experience my freshman year. My group leader, Alex Riahi, was a great influence on me and we are still friends today. I wanted to welcome new students to the university the same way they welcomed me. My first year on Manresa, I was on Staff and I loved it. It’s such an amazing and uplifting experience knowing that you are able to impact the entire first year class. That being said, given my great experiences with Manresa, I figured that I would take that to the next level and apply for Core in order to impact the first years and the orientation team as well.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from being in these clubs?
Patience. It’s difficult working in high stress situations and with diverse groups of people, but through my experiences in both of these organizations I have learned how to effectively communicate with others and inadvertently gained more patience for others as we are working together and learning from one another.
What’s your favorite SAC activity of the year and why?
This past year, another SAC-er and I created the Color X-Plosion run on campus. SAC is now going to make the event an annual run across campus. Although the planning of the event was stressful at times, seeing the final result was very rewarding not only for myself and the co-chair of the event, but it brought SAC together as a whole during the event itself. It was awesome to see the entirety of SAC working together and having fun at the same time.
What was the best part of Manresa this year and why?
My favorite part of Manresa this year was seeing the event come together as a whole. I loved seeing all of Core’s hard work go as planned and become such an amazing, impactful event. I also really enjoyed seeing a group of strangers come together as a team for the same overall goal of welcoming the first years to campus and making them comfortable.
Favorite TV show: Orange is the New Black
Favorite restaurant in Cincinnati: Gomez Salsa is a late night/ take out taco stand that’s only open on the weekends in OTR, but it’s AMAZING. Hands down, the best tacos I’ve ever had.
If you could have one superpower: I would want to be able to teleport from place to place.
Favorite spot on campus: There’s this private patio area behind Edgecliff that is a great place to sit and reflect. It’s a nice place to go when I’m overwhelmed with schoolwork.