By Ruth Bruno
After 50 years, the CCSU Student Center continues to provide a place for students to gather together to grab some lunch or do homework. But for others, the Student Center provides a job and many opportunities leading to future careers.
Tiffany Moffo-Simpson, Assistant Director of the Student Center, has worked there for almost 10 years. She began as an intern while she was a grad student at CCSU. Over the years, says Simpson, the Student Center has changed in order to meet the demands of the students.
“We’ve expanded in the sense that we now have many more clubs. The main difference over the years is our students. Our student body changes, so we try hard to keep up with those needs and what they want,” said Simpson.
Simpson works closely with student staff members and interns. She says watching and helping students through the same processes she experienced as a young intern has been one of the highlights of her job at the student center.
“Even now watching some of our students who start out as quiet and shy evolve into mature and involved, focused student leaders; that’s my proudest moment,” said Simpson.
Maria Santilli, Co-Assistant Director of the Student Center along side Simpson, says that the atmosphere of the center is familial, and members of the senior staff work together in a “tight-knit” way.
“We create an environment that our student employees want to come back to every day.  Our student employee retention is incredibly high,” she said.
The majors and career goals of those who work in the student center span a wide range. Maleka Powers, Breakers Game Room Operations Manager, notices and takes advantage of this. She says the experience she gains working with a diverse group of people will pair well with her degree in exercise science.
“The environment is very diverse and that’s my favorite part about it,” said Powers. “In personal training, you work with all kinds of different people. Working at Breakers, especially, you interact with a lot of different people from different backgrounds.”
For other students, their work at the Student Center has given them a resource to help lead them to explore new possibilities.
“To be honest, at first I just saw it as a job, but then as I became student manager, that bug has been placed in my ear,” said Pratik Patel, a mechanical engineering major.  He explains that the passion of his colleagues and managers around him has caused him to reconsider if he wants to continue in mechanical engineering.
“The idea of going into higher education has been sitting in the back of my mind,” said Patel.
For others, working in the Student Center provides them with the encouragement and experience to continue in their chosen field.
Julie Koivisto, a grad student studying in the counseling program here, has began her internship at the Student Center just this year. “Just working here for the last couple of months has really reassured me that this is what I want to do,” said Koivisto.
Colleen Powers, Assistant Director of Student Activities/Leadership Development (SA/LD) says that working with students and interns is something that many of the programs hosted in the Student Center – including SA/LD and Central Activities Network (CAN) – strive to do.
“I think for most of us who work in higher education the whole reason we do it is because we want to work with students,” said Powers.
Powers further explains that the interns and students who work for SA/LD and CAN are advised about what activities to host on campus, but most of the decisions are made by them.
“The last two years, we definitely noticed a different energy and enthusiasm of the incoming class and I think part of it has to do with efforts we’ve made toward making orientation a better program for them,” said Powers.
She says there has been an increase at events and a demand for more educational opportunities. As a result, on-campus programs are offering more lectures that students can tie into their classes.
Powers said that having a building and department like the Student Center has been an important factor in bringing these programs together so that they can be easily coordinated.
“Our location is great,” said Powers.  “The Student Center staff takes a lot of pride in making sure the building is the best it can be and making sure it offers the most possible to students.”