Freshman environmental studies and organizational studies major Christina Sanderson was recently voted the new president of Blackburn College’s Circle K International (CKI) club, replacing former president and founder Austin Ives. CKI is a service organization focused on assisting children and is currently involved in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) program, which educates kids in Haiti on proper hygiene and gives them access to clean and safe water.
Sanderson has several changes and improvements planned for her presidency. “My main goal is to improve the involvement of students at Blackburn,” she said. She plans to solve the problem of meeting times the group faced this semester. Finding a time for all members to meet throughout the week proved challenging, with members often missing meetings due to work or class. Sanderson intends to look through schedules for classes and jobs and using a day and time that works for as many members as possible.
Sanderson also wants CKI to be more involved in the Carlinville community. The goal is to join forces with several other service organizations throughout the community. Finding and contacting these organizations would be the job of CKI’s service chairperson, who is yet to be decided for next year. The group intends to “visit the local animal shelter to volunteer with any and all work they need,” according to Sanderson. She also stated that the group plans to visit and donate to the food pantries in the Carlinville area. Sanderson wants the group “to be more involved outside of campus, and expand our connections into the surrounding area.”
Sanderson’s final goal for next year is to improve the reputation of CKI around the Blackburn campus. She does not want the group to be known as “always selling things in DCC,” she said, “but no one really knows what the money is truly for.” She plans on putting a committee together to send out a monthly newsletter for students, so they are aware of what happened recently within the group, as well as what they plan on doing in the near future. She also aims to send out a weekly agenda to members “to keep everyone in the loop, especially if they had to miss the meeting the week before.” Sanderson also wants to include more campus-inclusive activities and events around campus. “I want to make the group’s social events public to entice more people to look into the club and want to join,” said Sanderson.