Nearly 90 of the more than 400 registered clubs and organizations on campus circled the University Student Union balcony on Wednesday, Jan. 30, for the Spring 2019 Clubs and Organizations Fair hosted by Student Involvement.
Clubs and organizations of all kinds were in attendance, including special interest groups, religious and cultural clubs, volunteer organizations, sports clubs and even some on-campus services.
Some of the clubs and organizations in attendance were the Sustainability Club, fraternities Kappa Sigma and Delta Sigma Phi, the CRU Christian club, USU Productions and FresCon, the student-run, on-campus comic convention.
Ramiro Merino, graduate assistant for clubs and organizations and major campus events, was excited for the event, saying that students who get involved are more likely to do better in school, be happier and make friends.
“This is such a great opportunity for students to figure out where they belong,” Merino said. “We’re just hoping for students to make meaningful relationships.”
Students were very responsive to both the event in general and the specific clubs and organizations themselves.
“We’ve had a lot of people show up. It’s been very interactive,” said Tram Le of Student Nutrition Dietetic Association (SNDA), the campus nutrition club. “A lot of people are asking us questions and have shown an interest in joining.”
Keelia Lancaster from the Fashion Inc. club echoed the sentiment, despite being on the less-visited side of the USU.
“We did get more people signing up — that was our goal for today and we pretty much met it,” Lancaster said.
Students attending the event said they were excited to see all the clubs and organizations in one place and added that events like this one should be more common in the future.
Thai Xiong, president of the Anime Club, advocated for more events like this, hopefully even another one this semester for students who missed or couldn’t attend this one.
Seniors Omar Flores and Raj Sekhon found a lot of clubs that interested them, specifically citing Hack Fresno, the Anime Club, The Lao Club and the Entrepreneurship Club as groups they would be checking out in the future.
“I didn’t even know this many clubs were on campus,” Sekhon said. “I kind of wish there were more.”
Student club seekers and club organizers weren’t the only ones attending the event. Associated Students, Inc. Senator for Clubs and Organizations Andy Morales attended the event as well in order to talk with her constituents.
She said she was interested in seeing all the different clubs and organizations, and that she was happy to see the number of students seemed to be increased from last semester’s event.
Morales also said she was especially pleased to see that everyone seemed welcomed and included.
“It makes me happy to see the different diverse clubs and organizations that we have here,” Morales said. “It’s really great that even though they are geared toward representing a specific ethnicity or something like that, they always accept everyone else, and I think that’s really awesome.”
