At the Student Impact Awards ceremony on April 15, Classics Club won two of the three awards for which they were nominated.
Dr. Rachel Hart won Outstanding New Advisor, an award that recognizes an advisor with less than 3 years in the RSO who challenges and provides support to members, upholds the organizations mission and purpose, and enhances members learning and development.
“Dr. Hart has been extremely helpful with running a club in the midst of a pandemic,” writes Zoe Cole, Co-President of Classics Club. “This year, Classics Club has moved to Zoom-based club meetings. . . She’s there to support us when we need it, but she also encourages us to take up positions of leadership.
“Whenever a student wants to go deeper into a topic, Dr. Hart always does whatever she can to support that passion and help students to grow.” Cole adds that, “I’ve taken many classes with Dr. Hart and her mentorship has done a lot for me, even in my studies outside classics.”
Classics Club won Program of the Year, which is awarded to an event that engaged the University community in a unique and creative way, for their 2020 Homerathon.
The 2020 Homerathon was a fully online and contactless event that used classical literature, themed around plague, to address current events. The club didn’t want to create something that would later turn out to be tactless given the context of a global pandemic. With this in mind, they strove for excellence in setting a tone of solemnity and hope in the way the readings were framed.
Classics Club was thrilled to have Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird introduce the material and speak to the timeliness of having such an event for the community. Community is central to the spirit of the Homerathon as is the collaboration of Classics Club with other departments and colleges at UNL. After being unable to go ahead with Homerathon as they had originally planned, the club was happy to be able to create this alternative that they could be proud of.
Classics Club was also nominated in the category of Outstanding Student Organization.
