Student leader helps manage new social hub and plan activities on campus

At a Bible study and discussion group on campus, junior economics major Brian Ramos ’07 became friends with Jeff Rioux, Messiah’s director of the Larsen Student Union and campus activities. “He talked about how Christians can interact and work for truth in the world rather than trying to create alternative industries,” remembers Ramos. “I would spend time talking with him about these ideas and, when a position on the Student Activities Board (SAB) opened, he asked me if I wanted to apply.”

Ramos applied, and now, as SAB president, he spends 30 to 40 hours a week in Larsen planning campus activities—dances, films, and concerts—from his second floor office. An arm of the Student Government Association, SAB oversees daily activity in Larsen, a versatile, multifunction building completed in 2004 as part of Messiah’s fundraising campaign, To Serve & To Lead. “Right from the beginning, both students and faculty wanted the student union to be used and managed by students,” Ramos explains.

After graduation, Ramos hopes to work in community-based economic development as a missionary. But in the meantime, he says, “This is one of the best capacities in which I can serve the people I’m living with now.”