Cultural Club of the Year - Canadian Students Association, Griffith University

Another semester and another year is racing by for all of us, yet 2010 has been an awesome year for the Canadian Students Association at the Gold Coast campus. They have been keeping busy with events and fundraisers all year and have just received the Award and Trophy for Cultural Club of the Year for their hard work.

Gold Coast Student Guild Awards Night – Friday 15th October 2010

Celebrating their achievement - President & Committee members of the Canadian Students Association, Griffith University Gold Coast campus

The prize was awarded to them by the GC Student Guild last Friday among other awards for the cultural, social, academic and sporting achievements at Griffith at the end of year festivities for the Student clubs and associations. They had tied for the same prize the previous year with another club, but this year they won it outright.

The Canadian Students Association has about 150 registered members and many friends. They have held 11 events so far with one left for this Friday 22nd October to complete a set of 12 for 2010. They kept the Gold Coast campus well entertained and have raised over $2,500 for charity, namely the Leukemia Foundation, the Red Cross, the Canterbury (NZ) Earthquake Appeal and the AIDS trust of Australia.

Mugunthan (Mugun) Sivapalan, Master of International Business is the CSA president and founder, so I spoke with Mugun and fellow committee member Caity Henry, Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication from the CSA to find out how they did it.

Mugun – “Well it does take some hard work. It’s not all just parties. We’re putting on events, networking with friends, other clubs, colleagues, businesses and raising funds for the club and for charities that we support. There is a lot of organisation involved, but we want this club to succeed so we work hard because we love it. We love sharing these experiences with all of the people we meet at the Uni and through the clubs. And most of all we get take these memories back home with us when we graduate and get to pass the club on to the next group of Canadian student leaders willing to take it on and keep it rolling.”

So what is the key to success for a Student club at Griffith?

Caity – “Mostly teamwork. We have ten members in the committee and we all take responsibility for the success of our events. We distribute duties where required, resolve issues as a group and feed of each other for ideas and inspiration.”

Mugun – “It’s also been about recruiting the right people in to the committee to develop that team work ethic.”

Shameless plug for upcoming GU CSA event on Friday 22nd Oct. 2010

So what’s the next big challenge for you guys?

Caity – “Graduation. And our next event on Friday Night?”

A graduation event, that’s got to be big. What have you got planned?

Caity – “It’s called the Fast and the Furious Boat Jam. Should be awesome…”

Mugun – “Yeah. It’s a party cruise through the canals behind Surfers Paradise and into the Broadwater at Southport with DJ’s and all that. It’s tied in with the start of Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercar Championship weekend through Surfers Paradise.”

So with Graduation coming up what happens to the Canadian Students Association?

Mugun – “It’s time for us to ‘pass the torch’ on to new leadership in the hope that they can maintain the momentum that we have created. It’s important to us that it continues successfully and we want to stay connected with the club and with Griffith.”

Caity – “I’m sure we can find someone just like us. Someone that is excited about developing the sense of community that being part of an active student club gives. It really helps to have that sharing and engagement with friends when you’re studying in Australia and a long way from home.“

Join them and other Griffith students on Facebook to see what’s happening with our student clubs.