Day twos and Money Mondays: Housing groups prepare student leaders for success
It would be an understatement to say Triniti Nelson and Ja'Marion Green have taken advantage of the opportunities available on campus and within University Housing.
In doing so, they've made new friends, built social networks and prepared themselves for professional success.
Through their involvement in Central Housing Groups and registered student organizations, they've also made a huge impact in the community, uplifting their fellow students and serving others – in Champaign-Urbana and beyond.
While both Triniti and Ja'Marion may ooze confidence and charisma now, they'll be the first to admit that participating in campus groups and activities and becoming a student leader isn't necessarily easy. But they say it’s worth the effort.
Their message to current and future Illinois students: Leave your room – and your comfort zone – and get involved on campus!
Finding a Community
In high school, Ja'Marion was involved with a number of extracurricular activities and a three-sport star. He had a big friend group – which he refers to as his “day ones” – plus seven siblings. He had a huge network of support and a life that was, in his words, “never dull.”
But leaving home and coming to a university of this size “can get scary sometimes,” Ja'Marion admitted.
Being so involved in high school meant constantly being on a tight, strict schedule. He suddenly found himself in a new place where he didn't know many people, with more free time than he was used to having.
“Coming in here, I was just trying to find my identity again,” he said.
Ja'Marion realized he needed “a way to meet new people, meet new friends and have new opportunities, so I looked into different [Black student unions] on campus. That’s when I initially found Men of Impact and the Central Black Student Union.”
Getting involved with those Housing groups helped him adjust to campus life.
Ja'Marion Green (left) says he and Kamron Brown (right) have been best friends since meeting on campus as first-year students. They now serve as Men of Impact's president and vice president respectively.
“CBSU is just a phenomenal org,” Ja'Marion said. “I’ve met some of my [best] friends, some of my greatest mentors as well, Triniti included. That was a time for me to really get my feet wet and really just be able to branch out and meet new people.”
When Triniti first arrived on campus from her home in Chicago, she was an engineering major, traditionally a male-dominated profession and field of study.
“Being a woman of color in engineering, I needed to find a group where I felt safe, and I felt like CBSU – or the Central Black Student Union – would be the best place for me,” she said.
Everyone is Welcome
January Boten, University Housing’s assistant director of Residential Inclusion and Leadership Education, said groups like the Central Black Student Union are especially important at predominately white institutions.
“When CBSU hosts an event, they put everything in place to create a space for Black students to feel at home and at ease and to be able to be with peers that look like them,” Boten said. “Most of the time, in their classes, that is not the case.”
Ja’Marion said the CBSU welcomes everyone, and being part of the group is a great way to make friends.
“CBSU’s mission statement, to me, is the umbrella organization for all minority students on campus,” he said. “We discriminate [against] no one. Everyone is invited to our events; everyone is welcome to come and be a family with us. It’s essentially a place to go to find your day twos.”
“After a while, it doesn’t even feel like a job, it feels like a calling. Inclusion and Leadership means everyone – no biases, no barriers. Everyone is welcome. We know everyone, and we love everyone the same.”
An Emerging Leader
During her sophomore year, Triniti planned CBSU’s annual fashion show, a huge responsibility.
“I feel like, usually, people don’t get that opportunity until their junior or senior year,” she said. “It was a lot, but I enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.”
After demonstrating her planning and marketing abilities by organizing and promoting a successful fashion show, Triniti emerged as a leader within the CBSU, eventually becoming its president.
“The students, like Triniti, that have been able to produce that show with 50 models and almost as many volunteers helping sew clothes, create sets, put together the videos that go in between in a very professional way – I think that is something that all of those students in all of those roles are going to be able to take [with them], whatever it is that they do next,” Boten said.
Triniti’s campus involvement was not limited to just CBSU.
Before graduating this May, she was the director of Illinites, as part of the Illini Union Board; the vice president of the campus chapter of the NAACP; the specials chair for the Moda Bellissma modeling troupe; an Inclusion & Leadership mentor; and a participant in Housing’s alternative spring break trips.
Triniti Nelson (right) enjoys a treat during her alternative spring break trip to Kansas City.
Triniti also had an idea for a pop-up shop, which inspired CBSU’s Drip Fest, a campus event held in the spring that features Black-owned businesses in the community and part of Black Illini Fest, an afternoon of music, food, games and fun.
Boten had nothing but praise for the event – and Triniti’s leadership skills.
“We had hundreds of Black students here all together,” she said. “It was the most joyful, happy event where students were able to showcase a little bit of who they are. To me, that’s why those groups are so important.”
Boten saw Triniti’s leadership skills – and confidence – grow through her campus involvement, meeting her during Triniti’s sophomore year, when Boten said she was “still was kind of timid and not as confident.”
“As she’s been able to do these different things, she’s been able to become more confident in who she is, [been able to] find her voice, determine what she is willing to do – and not willing to do,” Boten said. “She has always had a work ethic that is off the charts. She’s willing to do what it takes to get something done.”
Getting Things Done
Through her work with the Illini Union Board, Triniti organized monthly Illinites – fun Friday evening events that provide students with an alternative to drinking and other dangerous activities.
Under her leadership, the CBSU partnered with the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center to host “Blackout,” which Triniti describes as a “Black Quad Day” highlighting Black RSOs and also featuring three-on-three basketball at the ARC, hosted in partnership with another Housing group, Men of Impact.
The CBSU also brought the community together through multiple Town Hall events, including an election night watch party, where “every chair was full.”
Through her work as an I&L mentor, hosting events and providing service opportunities for students, and with her campus involvement, Triniti has been able to give back to the community, participating in and sometimes leading the organization of book fairs, blood drives, letter-writing campaigns to incarcerated persons, food and clothing drives and more.
January Boten and Triniti celebrate after Triniti earned one of the campus MLK Champions awards.
‘We Love Everyone’
Like Triniti, Ja’Marion is also an Inclusion & Leadership mentor.
While I&L mentors are paid student positions within University Housing, Ja’Marion says being a mentor has been “an amazing time,” and it is much more than just a job.
“After a while, it doesn’t even feel like a job, it feels like a calling,” he said. “Inclusion and Leadership means everyone – no biases, no barriers. Everyone is welcome. We know everyone, and we love everyone the same.”
The Inclusion & Leadership staff pose for a photo near the end of the spring 2025 semester.
Ja’Marion, whose many friends call him “Jay,” has become something of an expert in making connections and bringing people together.
He does so with intention – choosing to get involved with campus groups and activities, but his natural personality also plays a role, according to Boten, who saw Ja’Marion excel as a campus coordinator for iGuides, who help welcome new students and their families to residence halls during fall Move-In.
“He’s definitely somebody that – his presence – other students gravitate towards,” she said. “I think that he is a key reason why a lot of the people who have chosen to be iGuides have chosen to do so, because he is a joy to be around. That’s an important aspect of life. He does a great job of making things fun.”
Ja’Marion has, perhaps, made his presence felt the most with Men of Impact.
Men of Impact
Ja’Marion joined Men of Impact his second week on campus, and he’s never looked back, now serving as the organization’s president.
He views the group members as pillars of the community and hopes people see them as “handsome, young, goal-oriented gentlemen trying to make this a better place.”
Men of Impact was conceived as a group dedicated to serving the needs of Black men through educational and service activities, with its members helping to empower one another while making a positive impact on the community around them.
Ja’Marion said Men of Impact helps its members become the best version of themselves.
Despite the group’s name, he said the group’s events “are for everyone – anyone who wants to come and feel appreciated and be seen. … We know what it’s like to not be seen.”
In addition to service activities, they often hold alumni panels and educational activities that help members build their resumes, develop elevator pitches, learn financial literacy and get comfortable engaging with people individually and in a group setting.
The group even has a photographer on its executive board who has provided the members with professional head shots.
Becoming ‘Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable’
Men of Impact regularly hold events like “Money Mondays” and “Motivational Mondays.” With the latter event, the group invites guest speakers to help inspire members.
Regarding Money Mondays, Ja’Marion said students typically feel sluggish on Mondays and can easily give in to gloomy weather, but Men of Impact combat that by ditching the sweats in favor of business casual attire or a full suit.
Members of Men of Impact come together on the first Money Monday of the school year.
He believes projecting a professional appearance can impact a person’s outlook.
“Being able to look and feel presentable in a space is what can change a single interaction,” Ja’Marion said, adding that seeing a man dressed up in a suit or business casual on a typical Monday sets a good tone and suggests “he can be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
He said these Money Mondays are so named because if “you look like money and feel like money, they’re going to pay you a lot in the future! That’s been passed down to us.”
If someone in the group or a prospective member doesn’t have a suit, Ja’Marion said it’s not a problem, as the group is in place to help one another out.
“We all become brothers,” he said. “We all need each other.”
They recently did a “suit drive,” providing 15 suit jackets and pairs of shoes for people who need them.
Developing Professional Skills
As individuals, Triniti and Ja’Marion have each compiled a dazzling list of personal achievements and built the type of head-turning resume that can impress any hiring manager.
Triniti’s involvement with campus groups helped her realize her passion was not in engineering – her original major. Instead, she tapped into a love of business and event planning.
“My involvement made me want to do event planning for my career,” she said. “That was never what I thought I was going to do.”
Organizing the CBSU fashion show demonstrated her ability to do big things, and Boten thinks this experience will serve Triniti well in her career.
“I’ve known hundreds and hundreds of students,” Boten said, “and she is one of the most talented students I’ve ever come across in terms of being able to set goals and being able to execute those goals. She’s just so bright and so talented, and I think the combination of that with her amazing work ethic is going to allow her to do anything she wants to do.”
Triniti knows what she’s doing next. After becoming a business major and minoring in communications, she graduated this spring and is headed to work for Blue Sky Chicago, where she’ll be planning events for different companies to help sell their merchandise.
Ja’Marion, a kinesiology major on the pre-chiropractor track, will head into his senior year as an already-established leader on campus.
Boten said his polished professionalism and leadership skills were on full display during the Inclusion & Leadership mentors’ recent Pecha Kucha nights, in which the mentors conducted presentations on topics of interest in a fast, fun way – using 20 slides and presenting their work in exactly 400 seconds.
“I really feel like his Pecha Kucha was one of those moments for me to be able to see him shine,” Boten said. It reminded her of the way he helped train iGuides. “Just his professionalism in being able to present to his peers and [offer] guidance to how they are going to do their job the next several days was very impressive to me. He’s going to be able to be in charge of things relatively quickly in his life, where not everyone has the skills to be able to do that straight out of college.”
Award winning: Triniti holds her President of the Year plaque at the Housing Student Leader Awards (top), while Ja'Marion and Men of Impact celebrate winning the Men's Empowerment Organization of the Year at CBSU's Black Acknowledgment of Excellence Awards.
Advice from Students: Get Involved!
Despite being so busy with activities and schoolwork, Triniti said she’s been able to find balance by maintaining an organized daily calendar and building in time for herself, including mental health days.
She advises students to “get involved” but always stay true to themselves.
“Don’t just stay in your room,” Triniti said. “Get out of your comfort zone. If I didn’t get out of my comfort zone, I wouldn’t be in the position I am in today.”
She encourages students to explore groups that fit with their identity, but also groups that may be a little different than what they’re familiar with. She recommends students check out Illini Union Board events and consider applying to be an Inclusion & Leadership mentor.
From Housing groups to registered student organizations, alternative spring break trips to paid positions like Inclusion & Leadership mentors, Ja’Marion said everyone can find their place and meet new friends – their day twos – within the residence halls where they live and at the University of Illinois.
“Whatever you may want, we have it here,” he said. “You can find some of the greatest people in the world here for your life, if you just give it a chance. We’re producing professionals; we’re producing future millionaires; we’re producing great family people. Just come in with a perspective to just be great, because it’s in you!”