When many students first come to college, they feel lost and alone. Some students need support and resources but struggle to find them. 

The pandemic has made getting help hard for many students. 

But what if all the resources you needed were all in one place? 

The Office of Student Advocacy and Accountability had their first-ever Foster the Flock Resource Fair to help solve this problem. 

OSAA partnered with RSOs and organizations in the community to provide students with a variety of services such as food stamp registration, volunteer opportunities, information about vaping and much more. 

Alicia Rollins, the student employment coordinator, said resource fairs are important because many students come to college and no longer have “parental guidance to help them,” so they need help being on their own. 

The resource fair also served as a reminder for students to get help with services they might not have known existed. 

Michael Crenshaw, a sophomore finance major, said he learned about a lot of new resources that he hopes to use in the future. 

“I’ve been proven that there’s a lot of resources on this campus and in the community that I don’t know a lot about such as mental health, social services and a lot of great things that I feel can better me and other students,” Crenshaw said. 

One of the social services that was provided at the resource fair was voter registration. 

Many students do not know how to register to vote or forget about it until elections come up, and by then it’s too late to register. 

Ethan Estis, the campus coordinator for Turning Point USA, helped students register to vote and gave them information about elections and the constitution. 

“There are even a large number of college students that aren’t registered to vote or have not partaken in the election process,” Estis said. “We are here to promote that because the most politically involved students are, the more of a voice they have.” 

Not only was the resource fair beneficial to students, it was also beneficial to organizations that joined because they were able to meet potential members. 

Estis said the resource fair is useful because you’re able to form relationships with other students that you can’t form online. 

“When you have that one on one [interaction] with them rather than over an email or in a social media post, I think you really tend to have more of a connection,” Estis said.