Cinephiles, bibliophiles and technophiles, rejoice! Seven new clubs have been approved by Student Involvement for the spring semester. Each club provides an opportunity for students to engage with their interests and experience new events on campus.
English Club
For students who are interested in literature, creative writing and everything in between, the English Club is there to provide.
“Even if you are not an English major or you don’t consider yourself a good writer, you can still get a lot out of this because it’s not going to be academic in the slightest,” president Maria Cangro ’24 said.
Cangro and vice president Madeline Marriott ’24 organized a successful poetry slam in October and decided to create a new club centered around a love for English studies.
“We think that English Club will be a step above the poetry slam because it’ll be events like that but also bringing people together and learning how to do different kinds of things that you don’t necessarily learn in the classroom,” Cangro said.
Cangro hopes that students will be able to form stronger relationships with the faculty of the English department by participating in the club, as she believes that there is a lot of information students can learn that is not taught in the classroom by their professors.
“A lot of our professors have worked in publishing, have taught at other schools or done other industry-type things for English. And I feel like that’s a skill that we don’t necessarily engage with in the classroom because we have to learn to write papers and take exams,” Cangro said.
The English Club will be announcing its meeting schedule shortly. It can be found on Instagram at @lafayetteenglishclub.
The Film Society
The Film Society, a club for all cinema-loving students at Lafayette, offers a space where students can bond over their favorite movies and attend screenings.
“You don’t need to have any expertise in film or any knowledge about film techniques or things that we’re learning in our classes. All you need to have is an interest in watching films and a general desire to get out and meet other people that share your same interests,” Joshua Chait ’25, the club’s president, said.
Chait was the president of his high school’s Film Club and when he saw there was no similar club at Lafayette, he knew he had to create one.
“There could be tons of other people on campus that have the same interest [in film], but just aren’t in my classes. So I decided, ‘Let’s make this group, see how many more people we can meet and how much more interest in film we can generate,’” Chait said.
The Film Society will be announcing its meeting schedule shortly for any students interested.
The Lafayette Data Community
For students interested in working with data, the Lafayette Data Community is there to provide fun activities where any student can learn how to use data to solve problems.
“We would like to eliminate the stereotype that working on data is always technical. We want to show that it is fun. It’s not too technical or heavy,” Eliso Morazara ’25, president of the club, shared.
Morazara started the Lafayette Data Community in hopes of showing students that anyone, regardless of their major, can learn about data in a creative way.
“Everybody will get something from the club. [They will] learn fun data operations in easier ways that require less coding and have fun and impact at the same time,” Morazara said.
The Lafayette Data Community meets every first and third Saturday of the month from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. It can be found on Instagram at @lafdatcom.
oSTEM
oSTEM provides a safe space for LGBTQ+ STEM students to connect.
“The reason I started the club on campus is to create the spaces that I would have liked to have had when I was younger and provide spaces where I could be 100% myself without having judgment,” co-president Louisa Rose ’23 said.
oSTEM plans to host panels of LGBTQ+ individuals involved in the STEM field, as well as discussions about post-college life.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, engineering is all the way in this corner.’ No, we want to bring everyone together. We want to create a bigger community at Lafayette to have that space within an academic setting,” Rose said.
oSTEM’s first meeting is on Thursday, Feb. 9 and the club’s meeting schedule will be announced shortly. It can be found on Instagram at @ostemlafayette.
The Women’s Network
The Women’s Network is a mission-driven organization geared at helping female and gender-nonconforming students find networking opportunities and engage in club events.
“We want to hear feedback if … someone [such as] an engineering student hasn’t felt Lafayette has provided them with the networking or the kind of career advice they need. We would love to know ways that we can help fill in those gaps for them,” co-president Magdalen Larsen ’23 said.
While studying abroad, Larsen learned about the national organization that Lafayette’s Women’s Network is now a part of. After looking into the organization, Larsen decided to establish a chapter on campus.
“There isn’t a policy studies networking club, per se, or a women’s and gender studies networking club. So I feel like this [club] will fill in a lot of those gaps and figure out what Lafayette needs more specifically as far as providing those environments,” Larsen said.
Larsen also hopes to establish club events such as the “Mocktail” event, an informal mixer intended to mimic a post-graduation networking event.
“It’s an opportunity for either recent alumni or current students to take an opportunity to dress formally to really try and sell themselves and practice,” Larsen said.
The Women’s Network will be announcing its meeting schedule shortly. It can be found on Instagram at @thewomensnetwork_lafayette.
Additionally, Student Involvement approved the creation of the Astronomy Club and International Affairs Club.
Disclaimer: Culture Editor Madeline Marriott ’24 did not contribute writing or reporting to this story.
