Celebrating Student Achievement (CSA) Day is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The first CSA Day was held on April 24, 2003, and it has since been a day where students, faculty and staff come together to discuss student achievements in research, performance and art.
According to the April 30, 2003 edition of The Meredith Herald, college administration decided to begin CSA Day in order to celebrate college-wide and departmental awards on the same day. The first-ever CSA Day included a “fun run and ramble” where members of the Meredith community were encouraged to “walk or run on a course set up around the campus.”
Dr. Rhonda Zingraff, director of the Undergraduate Research Program at the time, told The Herald in 2003 that in previous years when student research was highlighted during a conference that took place on a normal school day, students “struggle[d] to attend [research] sessions…while classes were going on.”
In 2004, The Herald noted that a “Fun and Fitness Kick-off” started CSA Day, and there was even a breakfast. The May 3, 2006 edition of The Herald included a story about why CSA Day should be included in students’ definition of important Meredith traditions.
Also in the May 2006 edition of The Herald is a story about the behind-the-scenes of presenting on CSA Day. In this story, writer Sarah Jackson discussed bringing a presentation CD to her session, which current students will note is a far technological cry from this year’s pre-recorded presentations that will not only be shown in live sessions but also posted on YouTube.
In 2020 and 2021, CSA Day went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, on the 20th anniversary of CSA Day, there will be over 60 individual, group and class presentations as well as honor society inductions, college and departmental awards and other events.
By Olivia Slack, Co-Editor in Chief