IUSB’s Director of Student life is off to new horizons

When Sam Centellas became Director of Student Life at IU South Bend in February 2008, his main goal was simple: get students involved in ways that they want to get involved. Since then, that's exactly what he's done.

Centellas recently accepted a position as Director of Student Life, Development and Leadership for the North Central region at Ivy Tech Community College. His last day at IUSB will be January 31. His first day at Ivy Tech will be February 1, exactly four years after his first day at IUSB.

It's a great step for Centellas, as he moves forward in a career he once never expected to have.

He attended Western Michigan University and majored in Engineering. After a few internships, he realized that he didn't like the field. He wanted something fun that allowed him to work with a lot of people, and get to know them.  Centellas was very active in the Student Government Association (SGA), the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity and other student groups at Western. His advisor was also very involved, and he realized that he wanted to continue being involved in higher education.

"I asked him ‘how do I get your job?' And he said to get a Master's in Education," said Centellas.

And that's exactly what he did. He finished his Master's Degree in 2004 and began working with Greek Life at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. He was there before four years before coming to IUSB.

"Growing up, there's so many careers out there in the world that until you experience them that you don't realize you want to do. Once you see it, it's like this is something I never thought of to try to do," he said.

"I like the pace of what the (student life) field is. I'm doing a different thing everyday. I never know what my day will hold until I show up sometimes. I enjoy what I'm doing, I'm glad I was able to find that."

Centellas has had a big impact on IUSB since his arrival.  When he arrived, Student Life wasn't a big deal to most students.  Welcome Week was merely a tabling event for about 50 clubs and organizations on campus. There were 47 student organizations, and not all of them were active. Many people, students and faculty alike, had the idea that "We don't have that, we don't do that, it's just IUSB."

"That wasn't a good enough excuse for me. We weren't doing them because we weren't doing them," said Centellas.

His philosophy towards students changed that. Instead of saying outright yes or no to students, he said maybe. If students wanted to do something, Centellas helped them the best he could.

"It's not about what I think or what I think should or shouldn't happen, but if we have enough students who want to do that, let's do it. Or if we can't do one thing, let's do another," he said.

Now, Welcome Week features more than 120 clubs, organizations and outside vendors like Chick-Fil-A and Fun Tan, and Centellas says there are plenty more vendors who can get involved in the future. It isn't just tabling anymore either; the entire first week of the fall semester is filled with events and opportunities for students to get involved.

There are also more than 100 student groups at IUSB, ranging from academic clubs to athletic clubs to interest-based clubs like Nap Club, the Poker Club and the Japanese Martial Arts and Culture Club.  In the academic years of 2007-2008, there were 210 student organization events held. In the academic years of 2010-2011, there were 538 events held by all student organizations, including Titan Productions and River Crossing Student Housing's Community Council.

Greek Life has also been a big change to the IUSB campus. IUSB Student David Kuczmanski approached Centellas about starting a Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and got the ball rolling for more Greek Life to come to the campus.

"Once we started with David and those guys, they made it fairly clear to me that there were going to be a lot of students on campus that were fairly interested and that they wanted to do [Greek Life]," said Centellas.

He drew up a report and IUSB was also able to have two sororities, Alpha Sigma Tau and Theta Phi Alpha, join Delta Sigma Phi in being the first three Greek organizations on campus.

Service Learning was another way for students to get involved on campus that Centellas helped oversee. Former SGA President Jake Jones wanted to bring back Project LEAD, formerly a leadership program that ended years ago, and turn it into a Service Learning project that rewarded students for their volunteer work. This tied into the Alternative Spring Break trips taken by students to help volunteer either in Appalachia or locally, as well as Make-A-Difference Day and other service learning and civic engagement events held on campus.

"You get what you expect and you drive expectations. We expect better here [at IUSB]," he said.

Centellas has helped students do almost anything that they have wanted to do. He says that's the way to get students involved and enjoying college beyond their classes.

"My philosophy is that if some people want to do it, let's do it," he said. "You can't create one thing for everyone, just create a lot of things so that every student has the opportunity. I hope I've done that here. I'm really proud of all of that."

He doesn't take all of the credit, though.

"Housing has had a huge impact on the things that we do. There are 370 people who live 210 yards from [the Student Activities Center]. It makes a big difference in how students interact and makes a lot of different things happen too," said Centellas.