Welcome back to the hilltop Saint Anselm. While bouncing back from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has been difficult for everyone, Saint Anselm had much to brag about this upcoming year. One of them being the successful vaccination rate of 93%. While the coronavirus has not gone away, this rate gives many people optimism for the upcoming year, and also allows for most areas on campus to be mask optional.  

The vaccination rate also allows for sports games to be open to the public and common areas on campus to be open without having to make an appointment. The school also found great success in hiring some new additions to the community. With their awesome picks of new people to add to the community, from admissions to the library down to the athletic department, Saint Anselm was on roll this summer. While the school had a wide variety of new employment opportunities, some of these roles were filled by local college students, New Hampshire natives, and past interns.  

One of these new additions, Alan Bergeron, comes to be one of the new nighttime periodical supervisors at everybody’s favorite study spot, the Geisel Library. Alan has lived within close distance of Saint Anselm for most of his life so he says that, “Working here is like working for a trusted friend of the family.” As a SNHU graduate, Alan is used to the college environment, but he says that “Saint Anselm has a very tight community feel” and that it makes him feel like a ‘member of an extended family’.  

Saint Anselm was very lucky in the 2020-2021 school year, with having very sound COVID protocols and by having success in finding new hires for their programs. Taking a walk across Alumni steps and down the street, we get to Saint Anselm Hawk territory. Three special additions to the athletics program this year include Erin Harris, Hannah Keller, and Alycia Daniels.  

Beginning a new job at any time is stressful enough, but imagine starting one in the midst of a pandemic and during fall sports season. Erin Harris, who is a new assistant athletic trainer, has previously worked in clinical settings, so her deciding to work at Saint Anselm was a “change in career setting”. Beginning her job here amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Erin has noticed how the “community works strongly together”. The trend that follows within our new staff is their attention to the community Saint Anselm creates and how it affects them.  

Despite not having easy access to seeing Saint Anselm’s friendly faces last year, new athletic and academic hires for the school are excited as ever to begin a somewhat back to normal school year.  

Hannah Keller comes to Saint Anselm as part of the Merrimack graduate student fellowship program, which “allows students to work at a college with their strength and conditioning staff to gain experience and knowledge as well as getting half off tuition at Merrimack”. While it seems like a great deal for both the school and her, Hannah says that the major difference between Saint Anselm and other colleges is the tighter knit community, and smaller number of people. “Saint Anselm is a very close-knit school because there are around 450 athletes compared to the 600-700 at the bigger school”. Hannah graduated from University of Maine with her bachelors in Kinesiology and Physical Education and is now working on her master’s degree in Exercise and Sports Science.  

Athletic trainers are certainly busy this time of year, especially starting up sports after a year of losing seasons, fans, and time to practice. Alycia Daniels will have a busy year this year, being the assistant athletic trainer for the men’s and women’s soccer team, men’s ice hockey team, and baseball team. She comes to Saint Anselm as a prior D1 sports college attendee, and also where her internship took place. She believes she fits in here because she is working closer to home now and doing what she has been practicing for a long time.  

Saint Anselm is now preparing for their fall sports season with some of the first games landing on Saturday, September 4 while academics started on Monday, August 23. The school is very lucky to have these new members to the athletics program and the library that should add to this new school year. This year should be interesting, while the school and the world begins to adjust to a post-pandemic world and what the new normal will look like in years to come.