Starting a chapter of Student Nurses Against Cancer (SNAC) can be a great way to share information and socialize with other students who want to specialize in oncology, as well as help your community. But how do you go about it?
1. Make Sure You Understand What SNAC Is SNAC is a student lead organization for nursing students who intend to specialize in oncology. It can also be extended to nursing students who do not plan to specialize but are passionate about preventing cancer and raising money for research. The structure of SNAC is intended to be as informal as possible to allow each chapter the freedom to express their creativity and drive. However, each chapter should have three basic things in common: Education, Fundraising, and Volunteering.
Education could include (but is definitely not limited to) having special speakers at chapter meetings, doing cancer prevention education on campus, or giving educational talks in the community.
Fundraising could include on campus events or chapter participation in larger events such as Race for the Cure.
Volunteering should be as hands on as possible. Contact a local cancer center and see what needs they have for volunteers.
These are a few suggestions but you are only limited to your imagination!
2. Assess the Interest Your group may start small, but that’s ok. You could start by word of mouth or emails to your classmates. Most online course shells have an option to send an email to everyone in your class, so that’s the unofficial way to go about it. You could also contact your Student Services rep and get permission to send an Eblast to your entire student body. You may come across some red tape on that one. Right now you are in the assessing stage, so focus on that.
3. Find a Faculty Advisor Now that you have several students who are interested and have collected their contact info, you need to find a professor who is wiling to advise you. A good place to start is asking a professor who you have already taken a class from. Before involving other students, you will meet with this professor to figure out logistics such as how often meetings will be etc.
4. Get Administration on Board Now that you have a faculty advisor and can demonstrate student interest, you can approach the administration through your Student Services representative to have the chapter recognized by the school. This will make things easier in terms of meeting/promoting at the school, as well as the slight possibility you may get a budget from the school. As I said this is slight, but it could make a big difference when you are fundraising to have some money for supplies etc. There is also the option of doing the chapter unofficially in which case you can ignore steps three and four and just meet wherever you want.
5. Notify/Organize Email SNAC at studentnursesagainstcancer@gmail.com to let them know you are forming a chapter. Include the name of your school, when the chapter was established, and the name and contacts of your members. As new members are added, their contact info should be submitted. Once you get the green light from your school, you can have your first meeting. Use the contacts you gathered before and encourage those students to spread the word to their fellow classmates. You can elect leaders or keep the format open. Then you can decide meeting times and what specific activities the chapter would like to do. Connect with SNAC on Facebook for daily updates and to ask any questions.
Good luck!
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