The Office of Drew University Student Life has welcomed three new officers onto the student engagement team: Cassandra (Casey) Gonzalez, Justin Otero and Abigail Haven. Gonzalez was welcomed in August of last year, with Otero and Haven joining at the beginning of the spring semester. Gonzalez has now taken the role of director of student engagement, Otero is the coordinator of club life and Haven is the coordinator of traditions and large-scale programming.
All three are very excited to be joining the Drew community. When asked why they enjoy working with clubs in particular, all of them cited their own experiences in undergrad. Otero stated “I didn’t have or know of the resources that were available to me and I wish I had them [in college]. I chose [to join this department] to reverse what I went through and be a resource for students and just be a part of the community and have a conversation.”
Gonzalez added, “because of my involvement in extra curricular activities in my time in undergrad I had a sense of belonging which I needed to find my community, which I aspire to give to Drew students.”
The student engagement team has been hard at work to back up these words—by revising outdated policies, archiving, working directly with club leaders and responding to student feedback as they can. “I’m very passionate about change,” stated Gonzalez.
In addition to these new faces, student engagement also restructured Drew Night Life to the Ranger Programming Board at the beginning of this academic year. DNL was a student-run group under student engagement that focused on planning and hosting late-night events throughout the year. Now, RPB has expanded to focus on late-night, traditions and off-campus events to reach more students and give clubs room to lead their events. Traditions coordinator of RPB, Lexi DeRonde (‘26), stated, “Attendance has been better, we have been able to reach more students such as commuters or people who go home on weekends.”
The team also shared their favorite events of this year. “The Taste and Learn event was really meaningful to me. It was a tight-knit and fruitful community experience,” reflected Gonzalez. Otero also shared, “I loved seeing students connect with faculty and staff at the Touch of Soul event, I really enjoyed that sense of community.”
Looking toward the future, the team is hoping to leave the department better than they found it. Haven in particular is hoping to amp up advertising, and gain bigger crowd turnouts to club events in turn. In addition, she also aims to bring in different vendors to give students new experiences. The whole team hopes to make the student engagement office feel like a hub for students to interact with.
For those who want more information about the student engagement office, you can find them at suite 128 located in the Ehinger Center, or reach out at stuativ@drew.edu. To stay up to date with events, check out their Instagram page, @drewstuact.
Jaden Finn is a sophomore majoring in environmental science and minoring in chemistry. Elliot Yap is a sophomore double majoring in art and media & communications and minoring in photography.
