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SLI volunteers at call center

The Student Leadership Initiative program (SLI) volunteered their time this week to lend a helping hand to the admissions and recruitment call center. “We call people who are missing parts of their admission application so that they can receive their status and be fully admitted if eligible,” said Zaphany Banks, who is a freshman majoring in business management from Jeanerette, Louisiana. 

Courtesy photo Members of the Student Leadership Initiative attend a program that is geared toward helping them attain the skills to become a good leader. The second SLI class will begin in the fall semester.

Courtesy photo
Members of the Student Leadership Initiative attend a program that is geared toward helping them attain the skills
to become a good leader. The second SLI class will begin in the fall semester.

He is an active student ambassador and an SLI member. As a student ambassador he saw the need for more volunteers in the call center and thought that this was a great way for the Student Leadership Initiative to contribute to our Grambling State University community.  

SLI is a cohort program for freshman only that began in the fall 2016 semester on Grambling’s campus, which help students attain the skills to become a good leader, excel academically, and become an asset for the professional world in the future. 

They attend events throughout the semester that they can learn and grow from to enhance their leadership skills. At the beginning of the fall 2016 semester, they will be looking for new freshman members of the 2020 class to be inducted into the program.

“SLI prepares our students to be leaders of social change,” said the program director, Garnesha Beck. 

“We want our students to identify challenges in their community and work to solve them! I was extremely proud when they decided to focus on assisting with recruitment! 

“It indicates that they understand the needs of the university and found a way to contribute to the solution,” Beck said. 

   Student ambassadors at Grambling State University often work in the call center to communicate with incoming students. “We need more people to work the call center effectively. We wanted to make sure as many students get contacted as possible,” said Banks.

MINIYA SHABAZZ/The Gramblinite Working at the call center is one way SLI members contribute to campus and community.

MINIYA SHABAZZ/The Gramblinite
Working at the call center is one way SLI members contribute to campus and community.

They call around 250 students per day and to meet or exceed that number they partnered with SLI to ensure this gets done. They were given a script to follow and informed the prospective students whether they still needed to send in their transcript or test scores to the university. 

Asia Faulk, Jericha Richards, Zaphany Banks, Aaliyah Robinson, and Kayla Giles are the SLI members that helped in the call center. 

“I would love to come back and work in the call center because it was a great experience and I liked the fact that I could help other people who are in the same position that I was in when I was a senior in high school,” said Faulk, who is a freshman majoring in child development/early literacy from Lafayette Louisiana. 

She also went on to share about her time in the call center. “It was a very good experience. Student Leadership Initiative is the first organization that I joined on campus other than running so it was good getting to know new people and expand my horizon when it comes to talking to new people.”