On behalf of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) Residence Hall
Association (RHA) Executive Board, we nominate Donny Adamczyk for
the First-Year Student of the Month. In March, Donny has sought
opportunities to step out of his comfort zone by having a more
active leadership presence in the NIU on campus community. At NIU, Donny is a Freshman Computer Science major in addition to
holding a leadership position as Vice President (VP) on the Grant
Community Council Executive Board. In the Spring semester, RHA holds
an annual Spring Leadership Retreat in March for the Community
Council members to enhance their leadership development. But for the
first time, the RHA Executive Board wanted Community Council input
on how to structure the retreat, so RHA had a Retreat Committee in
preparation for the event. When the RHA Executive Board was looking
for students to take part in the committee, Donny was one of the
first students to volunteer. In the committee meetings, Donny played
an integral role by coming up with interactive activities that were
played during the Retreat, and he took initiative to lead these
activities. Donny leading these activities were valuable in the
Retreat because he helped the residents build connections with each
other that have continued throughout this month. Aside from having a major role in the Retreat Committee, Donny got
selected to attend the Illinois Residence Hall Association (IRHA)
Leadership Conference as a delegate. This is Donny’s first Housing
Conference that he has attended. In preparation of IRHA, Donny
assisted in creating ideas and filming the delegation’s roll call
video. Also, Donny supported his fellow delegates by making the
clothes pins and motivated the delegates to continue their strong
efforts. Since Donny took on an active role by engaging with the
entire delegation, he received the honor as a Delegation Leader in
the NIU delegation that attended IRHA. At IRHA, Donny continued building his leadership efforts by co-
presenting two programs, then attended many other programs where he
learned about new topics and strategies involving leadership and
personal growth, and further constructed his connections with the
other NIU delegates as the Delegation Leader. During the IRHA awards
banquet, he was a part of a delegation that won the Most Spirited
Large School and he received a Top 10 Program Award. Donny’s
leadership throughout the IRHA conference helped make lasting
impressions for the delegates that made their IRHA experience very
memorable. After attending IRHA, Donny’s dedication to RHA and Grant Community
Council became more apparent. In March, Donny helped his Community
Council put on a successful Valentine’s Day program, called “Love
Yourself.” In this program, the residents of Grant built photo
frames and decorated their own cookies. Additionally, Donny
volunteered for the RHA Game Night, where he facilitated the board
games that were played during the event. Donny’s commitment to
putting on programs exemplifies his enthusiasm to RHA and Community
Council. Overall, Donny’s efforts in March in the Retreat Committee,
throughout IRHA, and his program involvement on the RHA and
Community Council level have been fascinating to watch from an
Executive Board member’s perspective. At the start of March, he was
looking for ways to grow as a student-leader. By the end of the
month, Donny has gained lots of experiences and lessons that he can
utilize in the future as he seeks more leadership opportunities.
Donny has been caring for others, and has pushed himself by stepping
out of his comfort zone by becoming so involved in the NIU on-campus
community. Donny has definitely earned his recognition for the
Student of the Month in March. Word Count: 596
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