Corgan Ball is the new Assistant Director of Campus Life at Knox College, following Emily Olague’s departure. Ball, who graduated from Knox in Jun. 2024, took on the role at the beginning of the fall term, as well as the role of Fraternity and Sorority Life advisor.
“As Fraternity and Sorority Life Advisor, I oversee and support leaders, chapters, and councils, so my responsibilities could include guiding recruitment processes, ensuring that everyone is following campus policies and organization standards, and fostering leadership development between students, between organizations, and on-campus,” Ball said. “I also oversee the returning area of resident assistants, so RAs who are in a space that is not for first-years, so I provide them with guidance, resources, and support them to make sure that they are fostering a positive residential community, as we are trying to foster more here at Knox.”
Beyond those responsibilities, Ball also co-leads the student leader selection process and collaborates with other departments on campus to create programming for various areas of the student body, with a focus on inclusivity and leadership development.
During their years at Knox, Ball held various leadership positions through being a member of Pi Beta Phi. They were also the president of Panhellenic Council and vice president of Order of Omega.
“These roles gave me lots of firsthand experience in leadership, lots of experience in event planning and community building within FSL,” Ball said.
Graduating with a degree in Music Education, Ball originally wanted to pursue a career as a choir director for middle school. After finding that teaching in a traditional classroom setting wasn’t for them at this point in their life, they found that their current position combines all of their passions aptly.
“I have a really strong passion for education and programming, I’ve always just been really drawn to the education field and how it can help students develop leadership skills and community and just gain an education that they find meaningful,” Ball said. “I never really considered a career in higher education, just cause I never really heard a lot about it. I knew that the college ran by staff and faculty, but I never really considered that that was an option for me, so working with the campus life team has been really rewarding as a student last year but also being on the staff side now.”
One of the biggest factors that drew Ball to their role as FSL Advisor was their experience with fraternity and sorority life, which gave them meaningful connections, especially as a commuter student.
“I just think it provides such a unique opportunity for students to grow personally and professionally and academically while building all these lifelong connections, and I believe that being a part of sorority life at Knox gave me all the resources and connections that I needed to be successful in what success looks like for me post-grad,” Ball said.“I just know that sorority life was something for me that just really created a community being at a school where I was a commuter student, so I didn’t have a built-in community because I didn’t live on campus.”
Through their position, Ball hopes to build stronger connections, especially in fraternity and sorority life and the residential experience, offering and bringing attention to more opportunities for students.
“My main goal is to foster just stronger communication and collaboration across chapters, councils and just generally campus organizations, building more connective and supportive FSL and campus community,” Ball said. “‘Not four years, for life,’ is a common saying in my sorority chapter because it really is something you join as an undergrad, and once you graduate, you’re connected just to a whole different series of people, but you’re still connected to that sorority for life.”
