Robin Glynn – News Writer–
On Sept. 19 during the Inauguration Week for Southern’s new president, Mary A. Papazian, the club fair was held for students to learn about the clubs and organizations and what opportunities for involvement were available.
The Service Team spread their philosophy while informing students as to what they do and who they are.
“We are actually part of the student government,” said Rose D’Amico, the Service Team chair. “We are the service branch.”
Some events that the Service Team is involved with include Dr. Ronald D. Herron Day of Service, a day that the Southern community volunteers on projects to benefit the local community, and they also volunteer at Loaves and Fishes food pantry and Clothing Closet.
According to D’Amico, the Service Team will try to have a theme every month. The theme will consist of a speaker, a fundraiser and assessment.
“It is a four-step process,” said D’Amico. “We are trying to be more organized so we get more member involvement.”
One thing the clubs want students to know is that they can always come to meetings and join.
Another club looking to recruit students is the Geography Club. Like the Service Team, the Geography Club plans to go out into the community.
According to Julie Christensen, the Geography Club vice president, the club meets every Monday in Morrill 122 .
“We do it during community hour so everyone can make it,” said Christensen.
Like the Service Team, the Geography Club also holds fundraisers and does community service.
“Last year we did beach clean up in New Haven,” said Christensen. “And the year before that we helped clean at the soup kitchen.”
“We are fundraising to go to two different conferences,” said Lance Lambert, Geography Club president.
Currently, they are fundraising to go to Maine and Los Angeles for the American Association of Geographers conference.
“We trying to become more active,” said Christensen, who wants to “get more people involved and to get ourselves more involved because we are a small club. So it takes a lot of dedication from everybody.”
The Geography Club will be celebrating Southern’s Geography Awareness week, starting Oct. 15. According to Lambert, the club’s president, they will have multiple speakers during Southern’s Geography Awareness Week.
“We will have three lecturers,” said Lambert. “Two will be Southern’s own geography professors and one will be a guest lecturer.”
According to Lambert, the club also plans to show a few films during the semester and to partner with other clubs.
Many students visited tables to receive information and enjoyed Papazian’s Inauguration Barbecue, but student Brinice Fleming was taking everything in.
“I don’t live on campus,” said Fleming, a social work major. “So sometimes it’s sad because I can’t enjoy this kind of thing more often.”
Fleming, a transfer student in her first semester at Southern, said she was thinking of joining the Social Work Organization Club or ProCon.
“They are trying to get a lot of different acts to come in and start activities with them,” said Fleming. “So I thought that was pretty cool.”
Fleming said that the club fair was good because she never experienced anything like it before.
“The college I went to before was a community college,” said Fleming. “They didn’t do a lot of stuff like this. There is a big difference, except for they didn’t have a lot of student oriented activities.”
While students like Fleming decide which clubs they may want to get involved with, clubs like the Geography Club and the Service Team will always welcome new members.
