SAC invites students to ‘Rise and Shine’
Starting Friday off with a serving of inspiration and knowledge might be the key to strength for a student’s study day. This is the idea behind the Student Activities Council’s (SAC) new themed morning lecture series, Rise and Shine.
According to SAC’s Lecture Coordinator, Madison Ellis, the series will premiere Friday, May 13, at 10 a.m. at the Jen Library. The inaugural lecturer is Joni Vanderslice, an interior designer and founder of J Banks Design Group based in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Vanderslice is a dedicated volunteer with the Hilton Head Boy’s and Girl’s Club and the Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce and was also named Woman of the Year in 1996.
“As it is a themed lecture series, this lecture’s theme will be ‘Origins’ and we will be offering breakfast, coffee and live music before Joni’s inspiring talk,” Ellis said. “Our Publicity Coordinator, Michael Decker, is a huge fan of CreativeMornings (a global morning lecture series for the creative community). As a team we decided it would be a great concept to bring to SCAD. Creating our own sort of spin-off, we started with the framework already in place but customized for the SCAD family.”
Ellis and her colleagues at SAC wanted to create an ongoing series for SCAD to look forward to twice every quarter. SAC also wanted to offer an opportunity for community engagement in a causal lecture environment for anybody to enjoy no matter what field they come from.
“Ultimately, our goal is to open a conversation for anyone to talk about the broad creative topics that these lectures will be focused on,” Ellis said. “In short, the series is a themed morning lecture series, offering complimentary breakfast, coffee and live music, all before an inspiring talk. Each talk will present a different speaker and theme. As the Lecture Coordinator for SAC, I’ve had the awesome opportunity to help with logistics, branding and future planning for the series!”
Those interested in attending Rise and Shine can expect a laid back environment where they can mingle and meet new people before a creative based talk over coffee and live music from SAC’s own Music Coordinator, Alejo Porras, Ellis said.
“We are very excited to have Joni Vanderslice, owner and president of J Banks Design Group, as our first speaker,” Ellis said. “She is actually a friend of one of our coworkers and was recommended to us through him. In the future we plan to continue to bring artists from around the Savannah community and want to begin working with SCAD’s new Alumni Atelier program to bring in alumni from around the country.”
SAC wanted to make sure Rise and Shine was not just something students could fit into their busy weekend schedules but also a productive way for them to kickstart their weekends by feeling inspired, Ellis said.
“SAC is super excited for the future,” Ellis said. “We have a lot of new things planned for next year, including a re-brand and more fun events like Rise & Shine, so keep an eye out for that come next fall! Check us out on Facebook.com/SCADSAC and @SCADSAC on Instagram and Snapchat.”
Written by Emilie Kefalas.
