Young addition shakes up Temecula Campus

At the Temecula campus, the Associated Student Body used to be relatively quiet. Not too many students were involved, and the club’s activities were few. Though the relatively short time span from admission to graduation is a great benefit to students, it also undermined extracurricular organizations, like ASB. The club’s membership was constantly fluctuating, because it was only a matter of months before old students would graduate and a new class would take their place.

Recent hire John Hall aimed to change that. Both a recent college graduate and a veteran of high school admissions, the man had extensive experience working with students.

Having finished school recently, John is one of the younger employees of SJVC. He went to college at California State University San Marcos for History, before pursuing a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership at CSU San Diego.

When John arrived at SJVC, he had plenty of experience in education. While his official job was a general education instructor, he offered to be the activities commissioner for ASB, a job that would come out of his own time.

“Student activity has blossomed under his leadership,” says Robyn Whiles, Temecula Campus Director.

It was under John that ASB began running a student store. The store is run by Temecula Business Administration students, providing a good place for the students to test their skills. At its beginning, the student store was just a table. They would unfold it, display the merchandise, and put it away each day, using the college mailroom as a temporary venue. This nomadic business model is finally coming to an end, as the campus is planning to provide a permanent storefront for ASB to sell its products.

The money earned from selling merchandise is used first to maintain stock. The profits beyond that serve to assist charitable work, sometimes for needy SJVC students and their families.

“Our main goal is to help students,” says John.

John made and continues to make a significant push for more community service work on the part of ASB. For Thanksgiving, the efforts of ASB provided ten Temecula students grocery cards to buy traditional holiday meals. For the Christmas season, a dress down day helped fund those in hard times.

There have also been fundraisers for breast cancer awareness, suicide prevention, and autism awareness. ASB students also assisted the local food pantry. Bake sales are not unheard of, and events tying in with weekly football games can provide a fun way to relax between all the hard schoolwork and assignments.

As for his personality, he is described as “a well-balanced young man.”

“He helps student and provides them a great role model, “says Robyn.

Considering he meets with students every day, John has built a rapport with the student body.

“It has been amazing and fun to watch this campus grow,” says John. “I only want to see more students get involved.”

“He’s really made the commitment to our students,” says Robyn, referring to all the work he does after hours, on his own time.

John might be new, but his work is clearly felt.