From Philz Coffee gift cards to peer learning program: Students services day shows what De Anza has to offer
January 20, 2016
a rescued turtle that was being taken care of at the booth for De Anza’s Environmental Studies department.
As a tortoise wandered around one of the tables, students gathered to eat cake, win prizes and listen to the music played by the DJ in the background.
De Anza programs and departments advertised their services to students during this quarter’s student services day on Jan. 13 in the main quad.
From free candy to Philz Coffee gift cards, students enjoyed the items many departments were distributing while exploring the services De Anza has to offer.
“There are over 24,000 enrolled students currently at De Anza, and most of these people don’t know about many of the services that the school can provide for them,” said Tony Santa Ana, program coordinator for Student Success and Support Program. “At student services day, they can learn about some of them.”
Most of these groups provide free or low-cost services to interested students. For example, De Anza’s health services offers personal counseling, birth control, over the counter medications, doctor’s visits and even immunizations for free or for a low price.
“Student Services Day helps school departments and programs reach out to students that don’t have the time to reach out to us,” said Mary Sullivan, Health Education and Wellness Director for De Anza’s health services. “For students who have never been sick, they might be unaware of the benefits or services that our center provides.”
Through Student Services Day students are able to take advantage of services and learn about how to stay safe healthy, Sullivan said.
“They realize that we’re friendly and that they don’t need to be sick to pay us a visit,”she added.
While some services are run by De Anza faculty, others are primarily student led, including De Anza’s Latino Empowerment At De Anza, or L.E.A.D., program which is a community of students who are focused on peer learning.
“L.E.A.D. is about students teaching students and pushing people to realize that it’s more than just them learning at school. We have all types of students in our program with different interests, so there’s a lot of diversity,” a member of the group said Marian Ahmed, 19, radiology major, said. “Student Services Day is good for our program because it gives students a chance to talk to us.”
The Higher Education for AB 540 Students, or HEFAS, program was distributing Mexican candy and speaking to interested students about their work.
“Student Services Day helps out our program quite a lot because it’s one of our biggest opportunities to advertise it,” said member of HEFAS Jesus Rivera, history major. “We have so many people that could really benefit from joining our program yet are too afraid to speak out.”
Though the event only lasted around two hours, each program that participated hoped that their presence had an influence on De Anza students and inspired them to reach out.
“Our goal is to help out as many students as we can,” Rivera said, “So the more we can get through Student Services Day, the better.”
