This year’s new crop of Government Relations Network (GRN) students started out the year with the annual GRN Ice Cream Social Networking Event. The social was August 24th, the Friday before classes began at President Crawford’s house. This was the first event exposing the 2022 to the GRN and networking as well as helping the students acclimate to Miami. Mallory Brandenburg, a first-year Business major, said “I got to meet people and see firsthand what the GRN does and who is apart of it. It made me feel even more comfortable being at Miami [in my first week]”.

Some first-year students may not have known exactly what they were getting into by joining the GRN living learning community (LLC). Many only saw the government portion and found that it aligned with their goals for the future, but the GRN is much more than that. The GRN is a networking organization with the goal of helping students get connected with others in their prospective careers and setting them up to be successful in the future. Those that attended the social learned about these goals, like Maddie Esposito, a first-year Public Administration major. She found the social to be a good introduction to Miami and the GRN. “Before the ice cream social I didn’t really know what the GRN was. It was great being able to learn about networking right from the start and be introduced to a community within Miami.”

A lot of first-year students don’t know exactly what to expect when they go to college. They think that they’ll have to find their own way. That may be the case with some students, but not those who have joined the GRN. “[The ice cream social] was a welcoming experience,” Caroline Baxley, a Public Administration major, said. “It was a fun first glimpse into the GRN and really showed that the GRN has our best interest in mind.”