For the past few years, students who were interested in joining clubs or attending club meetings relied on information provided by the Student Hub in order to figure out where and when they needed to go.

This year, the school has introduced a new platform, Laker Launchpad, where everything they need to know can be found in one place.

“We chose to implement a student engagement platform in order to simplify the processes for our student leaders and also for students who are looking for opportunities to get involved and things to do on campus,” said Steph Przepiora, Director of Campus Involvement.

The Student Hub mainly relied on PDFs, Microsoft Forms, and Etrieve in order to register clubs and get them new meeting places and times every semester. Fortunately, with Laker Launchpad, that can all be done in one spot, so club officers don’t have

to worry about filling out so many forms.

“You can look at the Hub, bulletin boards, the website, Instagram, and it makes things complicated for students to find what’sgoing on,” said Przepiora. “So right now, we’re working on getting everyone involved with Laker Launchpad.”

There are many resources available through Laker Launchpad.

“Not only clubs and organizations, but Academic Support, Residence Life, Community Engagement and Campus Ministry are all in the process of adding their events as well,” Przepiora said. “We are hoping to make this a whole, comprehensive platform for student engagement.”

Laker Launchpad can both be accessed online at mercyhurst.presence.io, or by downloading the Laker Launchpad app.

One can visit the Mercyhurst HUB and click on the linked image to access Laker Launchpad.

So far, the use of Laker Launchpad has garnered many positive

reactions from club officers.

“Laker Launchpad is just the right platform that the RSCO executive board members have been waiting for,” said Ashley Kreeger, junior Intelligence Studies major

and president of the Mercyhurst Law Enforcement Intelligence Club. “I believe it is a great platform because it allows us to have all documents, meeting dates, requests, and interactions all in one place. Submitting meetings is way simpler and every entity will be notified of the upcoming meeting. Also, more club members will be able to see when a meeting is being hosted, so they do not have to rely on emails or word-of-mouth.”

Alexa Karner, senior Public Health major and president of the Public Health Club, agrees.

“I think navigating Laker Launchpad is super easy. You can search clubs and events and even search tags (similar to Instagram hashtags) to see different clubs that might have tagged food, movies, etc. for their meeting so you know what the event will be like,” said Karner.

In order to use Laker Launchpad on the computer or as an app, all students have to do is log in with their Student ID credentials, and then they can join as many clubs as they wish.

While some clubs are still using emails as a way to perform outreach, Laker Launchpad also has that ability.

“This is a great way to find out what there is to do on campus,” Przepiora. “Keep checking back for more groups to be added to Laker Launchpad and more events to show up in the app!”