By Kate Augusto

College students of our generation want to be leaders for social change more than other generations, said Sherrie Waller, a senior architecture major.

Waller was one of more than 30 students working booths at a fair on Wednesday called “A Year of Social Change.” The event was the kickoff for Northeastern’s new student leader and student group collaboration, Generation Y.

“The goal of Generation Y is to be a forum for thinking and talking and learning how to get involved, whether it’s on campus, the local community or globally,” said Alex Alvanos, the founder of Generation Y. “We’re Generation Y, we ask ‘why,’ we step up and get actively involved.”

The purpose of “A Year of Social Change” was to introduce Generation Y to the community and better familiarize students with the different groups on campus so they feel comfortable joining them, Alvanos said. Each student group that participated had a table at the event where they shared with students what their group is about and how to get involved.

Waller was working at the Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT) booth, telling students about HEAT’s goals, including a greenhouse gas management plan to reduce the amount of Northeastern’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Sara Elligson, a sophomore criminal justice major, was standing in a line to get a free T-Shirt and explained what social change meant to her while being video taped by Generation Y members.

“This event allows students, especially incoming freshmen, to see all Northeastern has to offer and how many different things they can get involved in,” she said.

Becky Stiles, a senior psychology major, and Julee Goldberg, a junior sociology major, used the opportunity to seek ways to get involved.

“There’s a lot of opportunities at this school to get involved but they’re never really presented. This gives us a chance to see what’s here,” Stiles said.

More than 15 student groups, including NUCALLS, NUSTAND and Social Change Through Peace Games, along with many student leaders, belong to Generation Y. Meetings consist of different groups getting together and planning events under the theme of social change.

Gary Price, a middler who started the group Globenet to help people with little access to healthcare, got involved with Generation Y partly because he said working with other groups is more productive.

“I think a lot of groups were having the same problems,” Price said. “They wanted to get stuff done but they were trying to compete [for the same resources] when it wasn’t necessary. Generation Y lets us work together.”

Julie Miller, a sophomore American Sign Language and human services major, is also part of Generation Y.

“[Meetings are a] big free-for-all. Different groups on any given night will plan several events at one time. It’s so cool because we’re all coming from such different backgrounds, Miller said. “We have everything from the marketing club to LASO working together to