Rocktoberfest is Clovis Community College’s biggest event of the semester, but for Patrick Stumpf, Senior Program Specialist of Student Service Administration, this year’s event just felt a little bit more special.
As he puts it, this event helped put the word “community” back into Community College.
“Students have been through COVID over the past few years and hopefully they’re looking to just come out, hang out and kind of re-engage with us,” Stumpf said. “It’s so important to re-engage with them we’re all here to support each other.”
The two-hour event took place on Oct. 20 and played host to various off-campus organizations, food vendors and campus resources with Clovis Community College. In addition, representatives from Fresno State, Menlo College, Fresno Pacific and Grand Canyon University were present.
Clovis Community’s farmer’s market, in which they partner with the Central Valley Food Bank, also took place. Students were able to take fruits and vegetables home with them.
The most popular booth was the Classified Senate Tacos, which fundraises scholarship money for many of its students.
“I think it’s so important to be able to see all of the resources they’re putting together for us,” Jackson Ramos, a first-year student, said. “It really feels like they care for us.”
One of the organizations that came out was the Resources for Independence In the Central Valley. The program is designed to help empower independence and improve lives by providing services and programs to residents in the Central Valley.
Arshak Ohamyan said that events like this allow his organization and many others to spread the word about the services offered, while also allowing students the opportunity to help out.
“In case if they know someone with a certain disability, they will know we are here every time in Fresno and all over Central Valley and we will help them,” Ohamyan said. “A lot of people understood that we are here and they did learn about the assistive technology that we offer and referred us to certain people who have a disability.”
Stumpf said the most important thing about this event is to set up students for success.
“It’s always so rewarding to see them come back to give back in and recognize the experience that they were able to have and try to create that for our students now,” he said.