It’s not everyday you will meet someone on Central’s campus who truly cares about the University and all of its students. Meet Eric Steiner, a fifth year senior with a major in communication and a minor in leadership, who does just that.
Something that is very near and dear to Eric is the Leadership Safari program at CMU. This year Eric holds the Staff Selection Staff Assistant position, a new position to Safari.
Eric is extremely involved with the Safari program and has been since he first came to CMU when he was a Safari participant. He spent the next three years as a guide, and then this past year he was a core guide, which is a guide that is in charge of a group of guides. This all prepared him for and led him to his current position with Safari, the Staff Selection Staff Assistant position. The Staff Assistant positions are the only paid positions within Safari, and are year around positions. The Staff Assistants are in charge of selecting and training staff, as well as coordinating the conference logistics.
Eric’s favorite part about Safari is getting the opportunity to work with other people who care about the University and the incoming freshman just as much as he does. Eric said, “The people that I work with genuinely love their job and helping people; everyone wants to be there.”
When talking about Eric’s dedication to the program and exactly why he loves Safari so much, he talked about how he likes to give back to the program that he attributed most of his experiences that he has had at CMU back to safari and his experience as a freshman.
Statistically, freshman that go through Safari are more likely to return as sophomores than those who do not go through Safari. The incoming freshman, get a chance to meet so many different people and get acclimated to the CMU’s campus. Eric believes that Safari isn’t only important to the participants going through the program, but it is also so beneficial to the staff. He said, “There aren’t many other programs like Safari and the staff gains so much from the process. ”
So what will Eric be doing after graduation? He hopes to go to Grad School where he would like to study higher education. Even after graduation, he has plans to continue his work with students at a University.