Many suffer anxious feelings towards groups of new people, but here are handy tips for navigating the abundance of clubs on Blackburn campus.
The college hosts a wide variety of clubs and organizations, ranging from intellectual pursuits like psychology club to hobbies like the Trading Card Games (TCG) club, and even volunteer services such as Habitat for Humanity. For new students choosing which clubs to join can be daunting, especially when they are new to campus and have limited contacts. This problem contradicts the purpose of clubs as they are social groups intended to help students. There are some easy ways to alleviate stress about making friends and joining clubs.
Tim Morenz offered advice on the variety of clubs such as to “break it down into small chunks.” By focusing on just a handful of extracurricular activities, the amount of clubs isn’t as overwhelming, and the same concept applies to those in the club that the student joins. Meeting just one or two people is much simpler than meeting 20 or 30 people all at once. Furthermore, joining just one or two clubs allows for students to focus on a select set of goals rather than being stretched thin because of a large number of new duties.
Choosing a club that suits each individual is important as well because clubs are meant to be fun and productive instead of a mental trudge. TCG club president James Zeitler says new students should “Join anything they’re interested in because it’s a great way to meet new people and you never know how many connections you’ll make until you try it.” With the amount of different clubs on campus, chances are there already is a club following any interest someone may have, but if not students can start a new one by contacting the Student Life Office.
Clubs also serve a variety of purposes. Some clubs focus on academics and can help students study and learn new subjects, several clubs explore hobbies for those wanting to pick up a new skill or to relax and unwind. Other clubs provide a service to the community for people who enjoy giving their time to helping others.
Beyond just clubs there are also several school-supervised extracurricular activities. For those who need to relax Morenz leads a meditation session twice a week as well as meditation class for academic credit. If a student would rather enhance their body rather than the mind, Blackburn is host to several sports teams where one could get either exercise or entertainment for their time. The college athletic teams range from volleyball and soccer, to basketball and golf, as well as several others.