On Thursday night, first-year students in Smith and Kennedy halls gathered for a Thanksgiving-inspired meal. They used the opportunity to embrace the spirit of the holiday by giving thanks.

The students wrote 84 thank-you cards to faculty and staff members who they felt deserved a message of thanks this holiday season for all the hard work they do all year long but for which they may not always get credit. They’re the “people behind the scenes,” as one student put it.

On Friday, members of the “Smennedy” Hall Council, which organized the campaign, sorted through the cards and then fanned out across campus to hand-deliver them.

“This program served as a way for students to show their appreciation for the unsung heroes around campus, without whom our university would not function,” said Camron Rivera, S’21.

Rivera was one of a handful of students who wrote their thank-you cards to the dining hall staff. “I felt that they deserved recognition because of all of their tireless effort in the dining halls and because without them, there would be a lot of ‘hangry’ students on campus,” he said.

On Friday, Samantha Carleton and Liam Bell headed toward Forsyth Street with a stack of cards in hand, while Rivera and Harrison Dieuveuil made their way toward Krentzman Quad to make deliveries. Rivera and Dieuveuil first stopped by Richards Hall to drop off thank-yous to staff members in Student Financial Services. Next, they went to Dodge Hall, where they tracked down Lauren Parker, an academic advisor in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business.

Rivera and Dieuveuil found Parker in the undergraduate office on the second floor of Dodge, where, fittingly, she was advising one of her students. They presented her with two hand-written letters. Parker was surprised and touched by the gesture. “It was really sweet. I was thinking about it the rest of the day,” Parker said in a phone interview on Monday.

Parker said the students who wrote her letters are taking a personal skills development course she’s leading this semester. She has been an academic advisor in D’Amore-McKim for three years. “It made me really happy that I work here,” she said of receiving the thank-yous. “It made me feel appreciated and that I had made a strong connection with these students.”

This program served as a way for students to show their appreciation for the unsung heroes around campus, without whom our university would not function.
—Camron Rivera, S’21

After meeting Parker, Rivera and Dieuveuil dropped off thank-you cards at the Mugar Life Sciences Building and Robinson and Hurtig halls, and then made their way to Northeastern’s Police Department and Rebecca’s Café. Dieuveuil, S’21, said he wrote his card to the NUPD. “I took a CPR class they offered earlier this semester, and the two officers who ran the class were really awesome,” he said.

Carleton, BHS’21, who is president of the “Smennedy” Hall Council, called the effort a “great experience” and one she hopes the council will continue. She wrote her card to University Health and Counseling Services. As a Type 1 diabetic, Carleton felt a connection to the work UHCS does day in and day out.

“It was a really nice feeling. We definitely caught a few people off guard, but in a good way,” she said. “It was wonderful seeing people light up when we delivered our cards.”