On September 25, 2013, over twenty-six Skyline College student clubs and a few Skyline College programs joined together in the Quad to inform students their presence on campus and to recruit new members to their communities.
The Skyline College student clubs offer a wide variety of leadership, internship, and volunteer opportunities to enhance their college experience. These clubs build student relations correlating with common interests such as career options, academics, cultural support, social events and interest, political service and religion. Participating in clubs on campus provides students with the tools and support to find their path and to create an environment of growth that allows for their establishment as active members of their community. Moreover, participation in student clubs and organizations is a key way in which students are able to apply skills and develop assets that become a part of what makes them unique and desirable with job and college applications.
Many of the students at their club booths shared why their clubs are important to them and how beneficial it is towards their future goals. Skyline College student Kevin Adler, vice president of the American Medical Student Association Club and Neuroscience major stated, “It’s the holy grail of clubs for me because being a part of this club really solidifies my place at skyline because there really are no other clubs offering similar opportunities to give an idea of the medical field.” Giving students a chance to play an important role regarding their dreams empowers them to pursue their goals.
Students can join clubs to see if they develop an interest in their future careers. Judah Darwin, a concurrent Skyline College student and high school freshman shares his concerns, “We can’t live without the environment. I’m here to create awareness.” Darwin currently has an interest in Theoretical Physics.
Davante Cade, a current Associated Students of Skyline College Senator and Business and Fashion major said, “Club Rush is an important day because it gives you a chance to get involved and be active. It gives you an opportunity to have a position of power, meet really cool people, and better your community as well as yourself.”
Lauren Tanedo, a Psychology major and an active member in Women in Transition, WIT, said,
“WIT is important because it’s not limited towards women but mainly for women and new students or re-entry students, people who have been away from school for a long time or don’t have any experience in school. It’s important to get this information out to people like that because they don’t know what their resources are. If they don’t know what their resources are, it will be very hard for them to succeed. We are trying to form a community where we can refer students to where they need to go for certain things. For example, problems at home, domestic abuse, mental health issues, substance issues.
It’s important to be here just because of the resources. We want to be here for you in order to be successful. It’s important to me because I’m a re-entry student. I’ve been out of school for 10 years and I came back in the fall and when I came here I didn’t know anything. It was overwhelming, keeping up with classes, working, and having a family at home. Being a part of WIT is important because they kind of tie everything together for me and they’re very supportive. They tell me ‘Hey, it’s okay, you can do it. It’s okay you didn’t get it the first time.’”
Luis Jimenez, Engineering major and President of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, said that SHPE “…has really shown me the side of professionalism that I haven’t seen since I’ve been here at Skyline College. It’s prepared me and has gotten me into internships. It’s really gotten me out there to be a leader in my community by promoting STEM related fields. Also, it’s given me a great opportunity to network with professionals out in my desired major. We want more Hispanic people in our community to join our club so they know they’re not there by themselves, and that there’s actually support out there so that they don’t feel all alone when studying. We have support systems and they can come to us so we can help them out.
Laura Sandifer, and Accounting major and President of Kappa Beta Delta, said, “KBD is an international business honors society used to help students get experience through leadership and help with the scholarship process to be able to move onto higher education. It’s set up for two year college students. It helps provide support for when I’m trying to figure out which colleges work for me. I also get advice about the pathways of where I want to go in the business community.”
Article and photos by John Saenz.
