Marywood University’s Student Activities Crew (SAC) announced earlier this month that they were named as finalists for the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) Excellence in Programming Award.

SAC members Brandon Sodani, Sarah Heyne, Madison Harm and Alex Knittel will attend the the NACA Northeast Regional Conference in Hartford, Conn. from Nov. 2 to Nov. 5 to present three of their best programs and events.

The Northeast Regional Conference, titled “Create the Moment,” will host a variety of speakers, performances and presentations over the course of the weekend, ending with the award ceremony Saturday evening.

Sodani, Heyne, Harm and Knittel will showcase the university’s various bingo themes, along with their Marywood Madness event and, in sticking with the conference theme, will demonstrate last semester’s “Cravin’ Asian” event to teach other schools how to “create the moment” and plan a similar event on their campus.

Heyne, a junior environmental science major and SAC intern, was inspired to nominate SAC after recently discovering the award at last year’s NACA conference.

Heyne also mentioned that not many small schools get this kind of recognition and said she is eager to show what Marywood has to offer.

“We put on a lot of events and everything and I really wanted to show other schools that a small school can put on great events,” Heyne said.

Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development Kimberly Coleman said she is also excited to get Marywood more recognition.

“We didn’t really know what our chances were but we had attended in the past and we thought that we had so many different, diverse and fun events here on campus that we had lots of things that we could offer to showcase,” Coleman said.

According to Coleman, SAC has never entered into a competition like this before, but they are eager to get their name out there.

“It’s an honor that we made it to the finals. It would be great to win and we are hoping to, but if anything we’re just happy to be able to compete,” said Coleman.

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