NAU is more than lectures, deadlines and degrees: It is a place for community, connection and success. This is why the students and staff who are part of SUN Entertainment dedicate their time to creating student-centered experiences that bring people together.
SUN—which stands for Student Union Network— designs multiple campus events every year, including concerts, comedy shows, movie screenings, tournaments and craft nights. Each event offers students an opportunity to relax, have fun, make connections outside of the classroom and build a sense of community and belonging.
Doug Quick, SUN Entertainment’s manager, said students run all aspects of the planning, marketing and management of the events with his assistance.
“We create opportunities for student engagement on campus,” Quick said. “Research shows that this helps tie students together, directly impacting graduation rates. The positions held by SUN student employees range from graphic designers, videographers, photographers, crew coordinators, marketing coordinators, event managers, a social media team and event staff who help the event managers run all the events.”
Quick said the 30-40 student employees who are part of SUN learn business and life skills by doing everything behind the scenes: working with vendors, creating a budget, preparing the grounds, designing the logistics and running events.
Emilee McArdle, a senior majoring in business management who has worked with SUN for 2.5 years, said the skills she has learned and the confidence she has gained during her time at SUN have been valuable for her future.
“A lot of the things I have learned aren’t taught in the classroom,” McArdle said. “I feel I have learned a lot of skills that I can apply to my classes and my work, like how to send an email, how to meet with people, how to work with groups and clubs and how to work with vendors and senior faculty. I think the biggest thing I have learned is to improve my communication skills and just be comfortable when reaching out and talking to people.”
That’s something with which her SUN co-worker, Miranda Theisen, an environmental science junior who has been working with SUN since her freshman year, agrees.
“I have learned a lot of communication skills by talking to vendors and people on site, even just learning how to get an invoice from a company,” Theisen said. “I have also learned to achieve a work-life balance, figuring out how to work and be a student at the same time.”
Quick, who has been managing SUN for almost nine years, believes students are not only learning skills that they can use for years to come, but also learning how to work professionally.
“I am always impressed with how well the students can handle themselves,” Quick said. “I get a lot of compliments from people at all levels about how they love working with SUN students because of how professional they are. We run SUN as a professional company, and the students learn skills that they can take with them and do really big things outside of school.”
SUN is composed of students from several different majors and grade levels but tends to recruit freshmen and sophomores who live on campus and can likely stay working for the organization for the remainder of their time at NAU.
Quick said their events are well-attended and vary in size and type. His favorites are the bigger events, like concerts, Earth Jam, Welcome Week and the dive-in movie that takes place once a year at the Wall Aquatic Center.
McArdle and Theisen agreed that the most popular event on campus is Wingo, where they get students together to play bingo and eat wings. This event takes place once a month at the du Bois Ballroom. However, McArdle’s favorite is open mic, where students sing, perform poetry or do comedy, creating a sense of community among everyone in attendance.
“My favorite part of working for SUN is planning behind the scenes, setting it all up and seeing it work just how you wanted it to work,” Theisen said. “When you see the students having a great time knowing you planned that, it’s awesome.”
For Quick, the impact of what SUN does is palpable when their events are taking place.
“I enjoy working with students and seeing them create all these relationships,” Quick said. “Being at these events they put together, seeing large lines of students waiting to get inside and leaving with other people they meet at the events to later come back with them and others, that is so satisfying because that is why SUN exists, to create those relationships and tie people to campus and give them that sense of community.”
SUN events are promoted in the NAU event calendar, the True Blue events calendar, Instagram and with banners around campus. For event information and behind-the-scenes videos, visit SUN Entertainment’s YouTube page. If you are interested in working for SUN Entertainment, send an email to sun.ent@nau.edu.
Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu