Today: Mar 28, 2024

Some Students Decided to Create Their Own Clubs Through New Club Workshops 

Robby Tierstein Contributor

The New Club Workshops are a unique opportunity for students to start their own clubs at Southern with help from the Office of Student Involvement. 

Talia Lent, a graduate student intern, hosted the recent Wednesday workshop.  Lent said that she oversaw the second workshop of the semester, which was sponsored by her membership at the Office of Student Involvement. She is the “point of contact” for students that attended the workshop. 

“I’m basically being a resource for them, for our office. I’m more than willing to be a mediator between those two parties and get them together to start the club. My Southern experience owed a lot to student involvement so I’m happy to be here and help other students who want to get involved on campus,” said Lent. 

Gianluca Del Mastro, a sophomore, is interested in starting a Japanese film club in which he hosts films at least once a week on Mondays at 5:00 p.m. He plans to show a variety of films including yakuza, samurai, romance, and other genres. 

“There are a lot of different subgenres, and they take a lot of different creative takes compared to Western movies,” said Del Mastro. “I would like to show people on campus how creative they can be.”  

Del Mastro’s interest in this medium came from a Japanese friend during his sophomore year of high school. His friend greatly introduced him to Japanese culture, including their language. He proceeded to discover Japanese films, including those directed by acclaimed filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, which he described as “very stylish.” 

Del Mastro plans to “introduce people to this very fascinating medium that isn’t often talked about.” 

“It’s very hard to find foreign films in America, especially from the East,” said Del Mastro. 

Lauren Klemonski, a sophomore, is planning to start a men’s and women’s club soccer team. 

“When I was three years old, my dad came home one day and signed me up for soccer. He was my coach and kind of took me through. I played middle school and high school. I’ve been playing my whole life, it’s a part of who I am now.” said Klemonski. 

Klemonski currently has two group chats with people including “about 14 girls” and “12 to 13 boys.” She attends these meetings “to start working on the paperwork, the club proposal, the constitution, finding primary contacts for everything and funding”. 

Klemonski plans “to build some new connections and friendships” with her fellow soccer peers. She also is interested in playing soccer matches against other schools. 

Michelle Morales, a senior, is a member of the proposed Mexican cultural club.  She aims for this club to broaden Mexican culture to a wider audience of students. 

“We feel that the population of on campus students is growing to be more Hispanic,” said Morales. “So, we wanted to highlight Hispanic culture, Mexican culture specifically.” 

Andreina Barajas Novoa, a junior, is the founder of the Mexican cultural club. She was inspired to start this organization during her sophomore year at Southern from an internship at the Mexican culture institute in Washington D.C.  

Barajas Novoa plans to educate students on important facets of her culture, including Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, and the reclaiming of Cinco de Mayo. 

“I really enjoyed being in those cultural spaces, so that’s what made me want to establish a Mexican cultural club on campus because I want to see something done at Southern where we can have different celebrations for different Mexican holidays and celebrations throughout the year,” said Barajas Novoa. 

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