Club leaders adapt to new social scene after pandemic

Students register new extracurriculars and revive dormant clubs

By Willow Symonds
Staff Writer

The COVID-19 pandemic often discouraged students from joining or starting clubs, according to Veronica Capraru, Supervisor of Student Organizations. WCC hosted 40+ clubs in the Spring 2020 semester, but now the number is about 30, not including sports.

A2 Entrepreneurs ended during the Spring semester 2020 when the club’s leader graduated and no one took her place. The pandemic moved all meetings and activities from in-person to Zoom, and the club disappeared from the student body’s mind – but not from Campus Connect.

Evan Aeschliman, a Business Administration major and the current Student Board Leader for A2 Entrepreneurs, noticed the dormant page and restarted the academic club this semester.

Before the pandemic, members interviewed each other for collaborative ideas, an activity called “cloud storming.” While A2 Entrepreneurs will return to the traditional in-person meeting format, Aeschliman aims to switch up the club plans.

“We’ll do training, ‘Shark Tank’ style,” he says. “I call them Intra Club Pitch Competitions, but they’re really just practice sessions. … We’ll also compete in different events throughout the semester.”

Aeschliman explains he was “looking to put together a group of like-minded individuals outside of the classroom setting. [A2 Entrepreneurs] isn’t just business and marketing majors, though – it’s open to anybody who wants to join and learn entrepreneurship skills.”

He believes the toughest challenge when restarting the club was raising awareness of its availability. To promote A2 Entrepreneurs among students, the four leaders, including Aeschliman, held a booth at Welcome Day on Thursday, Jan. 19. They plan to advertise again in Feb. 1’s Club Fair.

Other on-campus extracurriculars resurged from hiatus this school year, including Women in STEM, Disc Golf Club, and the Red Cross Club. Washtenaw Animators Intuitive (WAI) went quiet for most of the pandemic, but last semester, the club grew in members and activity, both online and in person.

Not all up-and-coming clubs existed before the pandemic, though. Some are entirely new, such as the Tabletop Games Club.

Lucas Fuller, a General Studies major, wanted to join a school club for playing cards, board games, and tabletops like “Dungeons & Dragons,” but WCC had no extracurriculars for these interests. Near the end of the Fall 2022 semester, he registered Tabletop Games Club with the help of some friends and Veronica Capraru.

Fuller soon discovered finding interested students with open schedules was “difficult.”

“A lot of people interested were actually students doing online classes,” Fuller says, noting how many of them couldn’t attend game sessions on campus. “With the club just starting, we don’t have the ability to plan something over Discord or Zoom.”

Tabletop Games Club always plays on Friday, starting on Nov 4, 2022. Because they began with so few members, though, some meetings had to be canceled.

For A2 Entrepreneurs, Evan Aeschliman will hold biweekly meetings instead of gathering every Thursday.

“Be flexible around group members’ availability as well as your own,” he advises. “It doesn’t make sense to have meetings when most people can’t be there.”

While founding a club may be challenging, running it past the first meeting requires even more time and effort. This is why club registration needs four student leaders and at least one faculty advisor.

Both Capraru and Aeschliman identify students’ short amount of time at WCC as a challenge to finding consistent club leadership. Either way, Fuller says leaders should be “dedicated” in continuing the club.

Fuller advises students creating their own club to “have friends also interested who can help organize. It’s helpful to have someone interested in it who you already know, so you know they’ll actually be accountable for getting the club started.”

He describes tabletops and board games as “usually a niche interest. … Through outreach, though, [students] can discover new things they like, new people to hang out with – even outside the club – have new experiences, and have fun together.”

Student Development & Activities wants clubs to be inclusive to all students, whether taking on-campus or online classes, yet Capraru hopes extracurriculars shift to in-person.

“Involvement matters outside of the classroom just as much inside,” Capra says. “[Extracurriculars] have been really picking up in the last year.”

When she was a WCC student before the pandemic, Capraru had just moved from out of state.

“If I hadn’t joined clubs, I never would’ve found my people,” she says, emphasizing how clubs teach “skills in a low-stakes environment [which] you take with you the rest of your life.”

Tabletop Games Club meets every Friday from 2:30 to 4:30pm in LA 225. A2 Entrepreneurs meets every other Thursday, starting on Jan 26, with the time and location to be determined. For a full list of clubs, go to WCC’s Campus Connect page and click on ‘Organizations.’
Students interested in registering a club should contact Veronica Capraru vcapraru@wccnet.edu or in the Student Development & Activities Office (SC 108).

Cutline: QR Code to the A2 Entrepreneurs Campus Connect page. Courtesy of Evan Aeschliman

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