By Hayley Leitzinger

WHEN anyone walks into Lora Snyder’s office, they are greeted by a burst of color from the decorations, a warm smile, and a welcoming and enthusiastic personality. Snyder is an administrative assistant at YCP.

Her office is in the Iosue Student Union, Room 205. Many people flow in and out of her office during the day to get help with CAB events, and almost everyone has seen or heard her name around campus at some point. Usually associated with the latest bingo game, graduation or some Halloween activities, everyone knows who she is but maybe less about how she got there and what she enjoys about her role.

Snyder has been working at YCP for nearly 16 years. During that time almost everyone has seen her touch around campus at some point. The decorated Christmas tree in Johnson dining hall? Lora Snyder. The Haunted house at Halloween? Lora Snyder. The decorated lobby of ISU? Lora Snyder.

Why does she do all of this and continually seek to do more? Simply, she loves her job. Snyder loves meeting new people, putting a smile on their face, and organizing events that students will remember for a lifetime. When asked why she thinks CAB is important, Snyder responds, “When students come onto campus, they want more than just classes. CAB gives them a way to decompress and socialize. Without CAB, campus life would be pretty boring.” In her role, Snyder give students ideas, schedules rooms for their meetings and events and occasionally order supplies. In addition, she makes sure the events are added to the giant Spart’s Den Calendar.  

Snyder not only organizes events and looks for new activities for them but also helps students schedule rooms for their meetings, order supplies and promote their activities.

Snyder’s time was not always spent working at York College, though. Her journey working as an activities coordinator began at Bradley Digital Art Institute in York. It closed in 2017. When she began working at Bradley, there weren’t many activities for students. Her goal there was to grow the activities board, and she achieved exactly that. Eventually, this organization got so big, the president of the college gave her a budget, and she was able to expand the activities organization further. She said the student atmosphere changed on that campus because of what she did. Her goal at Bradley was to continuously expand the activities board, and that’s the same goal she brought to YCP.

Snyder says her interview for the position at YCP went extremely well, and from the minute she got the job, her goal has not changed. As she works to expand CAB’s horizon’s, this vision has enabled her to organize many new activities for students. For example, CAB bought a Cricut – a small cutting machine – to make decorations and do crafts, and a mug press. All of this has culminated into what Snyder says is her biggest achievement: Being part of the large group that helped develop CAB to where it is today.

Snyder was born and raised in York County, but loves to travel and has lived in many places. She lived in Germany for several years and moved to Texas later. Snyder loved living in Germany because “you can be in different countries in a matter of hours. I could visit Holland or France in four or five hours.” She loves to visit Europe and tries to go to a different country each time.

Mar Kenawell, the bingo chair at CAB, agrees with Snyder’s goal for the organization and is just as passionate as Snyder is about achieving this goal. Kenawell says, “Lora is a very compassionate person … and always sees the good in people.” She adds, “One thing to know about Lora is that if you don’t have it, Lora will. Like the Mary Poppins bag but in her office.”

Kenawell says Snyder helps CAB get extra decorations for events and if they pay for something with their own card, “…we give her our receipts, which would be granting us a refund.”

Over the years, Snyder has been happy to see how they are able to offer more events to students. “We try to change things up and keep students interested,” she says. “That’s how we were able to branch out into the special bingos, like lego and squishmallow.”

Snyder possesses an energetic and positive personality that spreads to everyone working on CAB. “The people who work on CAB are passionate about it and they love it,” she says, which is likely one of the reasons why CAB is such a successful organization on campus. She has certainly had her hand in that.

When Snyder is asked about her future career goals, she responds, “I hope I never have another job! My career goals from the start were simply to walk into a job I enjoyed everyday, and now I have exactly that!” 

Hayley Leitzinger is a freshman at YCP and her major is currently undeclared. She is considering Occupational Therapy and is tailoring her classes this semester towards that career.

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