Neligh-Oakdale Grad Receives National Award

A Neligh-Oakdale graduate was among those recognized on a national level.

Tia Smith, daughter of Terry and Trish Smith of Neligh, serves as vice president of the ​Northeast Community College's Student Activities Council (SAC). The Night Hawks Escape Room, sponsored by SAC, was presented the 2018 National Event of the Year award from the Association of the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA) at the organization’s national conference here. It was one of five awards presented at the conference.

Representatives from over 100 community colleges, state colleges and universities attended the conference.

Carissa Kollath, director of student activities at Northeast, accepted the award with Amanda Schultze, assistant activities coordinator; Danielle Gilliland, Wakefield, secretary of SAC; and Smith, Neligh.

“We are so honored to be recognized on the national level at the APCA conference for our Night Hawks Escape Room,” said Kollath. “To bring home the Event of the Year prize is overwhelmingly exciting and a special honor. Amanda and I have put a lot of time and energy into creating the escape rooms, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate its success and innovation.”

An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players are placed in a room and use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles to escape within a set time limit. Since the initial Escape Room project in Spring of 2017, which featured a history of Northeast, SAC has also hosted carnival- and pirate-themed escape rooms.

Also at the APCA national conference, Northeast took second place in the Novelty Items category for the 5-in-1 car tool that SAC gave away at its annual Sober in October event. The tool is a torch light, LED light, seatbelt cutter, window smasher, and digital tire pressure gauge. Sober in October is designed to show the dangers of drinking and driving and binge drinking.

A promotional Hawk tumbler cup took third place in the Novelty Items category.

APCA seeks to promote campus engagement through quality educational experiences, affordable entertainment and community service initiatives.