Following St. Joe’s merger with the University of Sciences on June 1, the two student-run event programming groups on each campus, Hawk Hill Productions (HHP) and Campus Activities Board (CAB), now Hawk City Productions (HCP), have been learning to work together to keep both campuses happy.
During the semester, the two separate executive boards (eboards) collaborate to keep their campus’ traditions alive while also establishing new ones together. The two boards collaborated on a King of Prussia trip that has included students at both campuses.
Megan Azzalina, assistant director of Student Leadership and Activities, says that both HHP and HCP have their own needs that they are trying to uphold while also bringing the two communities together.
“Both campuses have different needs,” Azzalina said. “So really seeing how both groups are able to rise to the occasion and hopefully inspire each other to try different things, because different things are successful on this campus [Hawk Hill] and different things can be successful on that campus [UCity]. [We’re] trying to think creatively with both groups to figure out what’s gonna work best.”
Samantha Balkir ’23, president of HHP, states that HHP and HCP aim to make students feel comfortable attending events on either campus.
“Regardless of which campus you came from, or which campus you have classes on, you’re welcome to come to events that either board runs,” Balkir said. “The goal is just to integrate the two communities through fun events that are in a low-pressure environment.”
While both eboards remain optimistic about the year ahead, the challenges that are to come with the change of the merger still remain prevalent. Sapna Patel ’23, vice president of HCP, explains that UCity students had to adjust to the new name Hawk City Productions, previously known as CAB.
“I think it was difficult for the campus because everyone was so used to seeing CAB everywhere on activities and now they see the letters HCP,” Patel said. “So in terms of us just changing the name, it wasn’t so hard in terms of administration-wise, it was just hard for the community to grasp.”
Aside from the change in name and logo, Nirali Doshi ’23, president of HCP, feels as though Azzalina and other members of HHP have done a nice job upholding UCity’s traditions and activities.
“Megan is doing a really good job of making sure that whatever we did before carries on into what we’re doing now as well,” Doshi said. “It’s not like too much has changed, just our name and our logo.”
Lily Bowditch ’23, vice president of off campus programming for HHP, is excited to see how this collaboration between the two communities can bring new perspectives, ideas and overall provide new opportunities for both campuses.
“It’s gonna be really fun to see if there are events that now we can do because we are merged, and we have more of a population that will want to do them, or just getting better ideas,” Bowditch said. “There’s always flaws and kinks in all of our events, so getting better ideas on how to do them would make everybody’s life easier.”
As both organizations maneuver through the obstacles of the merger, eboard members remain optimistic and hopeful for the 2022-2023 school year and future events HHP and HCP will work together to host.
“HCP has a very unique set of experiences, and they have a really good understanding of what their campus likes and what their student body enjoys,” Balkir said. “They bring that feedback back to us so that we can create events that the students on both campuses can enjoy together.”
