Photos by Ralph Freso
Sometimes, you just want to be around your people.
For Grand Canyon University student Summor Sullivan, that’s her biologically oriented brethren in environmental science.
“I’m a plant person,” she said, before pointing to three club friends around a table at the Spring Club and Community Fair in the Canyon Activity Center on Wednesday night, joined by the skulls of a warthog and javelina and the skin of a snake.
“That’s Josie (Gorman). She’s a rock person. Aiva (Boykin) likes international (exotic plants), and Maddi (Sauder) is an animal person.”
They are also people persons.
That’s why, like so many others at the fair representing some of the 122 student clubs this spring semester at GCU, they want to get together. Sullivan just launched GCU’s chapter of The Wildlife Society after working with the state chapter as an intern to share the love of the world around us.
One doesn’t have to be in the sciences to join, though it won’t be just a sauntering hike (there’s the Lopes Outdoors Club for that).
“We are definitely conservation focused,” said Sullivan, the chapter’s president. “So, if people come to our club, they're going to know a lot more about how to protect areas, how to protect animals, how to protect environments, and why it's important to do those things. That's something that all of us are very passionate about, and why we're doing this.”
They’ll have speakers, go on field trips and network with professionals. And Sullivan, who grew up in the agricultural regions of California, working in fields with plants, says it's comforting to join with others who have the same passions.
“I am a very strong Christian. And it's really hard sometimes to be Christian and in a field like this,” she said. “I can’t even count on one hand how many people have asked, ‘So what’s your ideas on evolution?’ Or these other really complicated subjects. And I'm, like, it really doesn't have anything to do with my work, or who I am.
“So overcoming those hurdles and being in a group of like-minded people helps. Having community and having people around me that are going through the same struggles with their work with God and with their interests and what they want to do with their future has just been so amazing, just getting to know how other people have dealt with it.”
There are six other new clubs for the spring, whether focusing on professional interests (Public Relations Student Society of America, Human Resources Club, Commercial Music Club) or for networking (GCU Volunteer Club and a renewed chapter of Circle K International) or just social (GCU Sport Fishing Club).
Clubs and Organizations Coordinator Jacqueline Nguyen said there has been more demand for social clubs as students seek to make connections away from their digital devices or studies.
“Some people are just looking for friends,” she said. “Even seniors who might be in their last semester.”
That would include Justin Loscher. He likes to fish. He doesn’t like to fish alone.
He started the GCU Sport Fishing Club to share fishing knowledge but mainly to have people to fish with.
“I never go alone. I like to go in groups. It makes it so much more fun. There’s so much that’ll happen while you’re fishing and you’re like, ‘I wish someone would have seen that.’”
It’s tough to tell a fish tale without a collaborating witness.
But they also can learn from each other. A student inquiring about the club Wednesday asked about hook size and line weights. But Loscher’s OK with beginners joining up. As someone studying biology who wants to get into an outdoors job, he’s willing to teach about etiquette, licensing and fish types.
Yet, it’s fishing. Fishing is fun.
“Friends will be falling in the water or … it's really the mistakes and the funny stuff that makes it a good time, right?”
Also true to GCU is an emphasis on giving back – and there’s a new club for that.
While there are numerous opportunities to do so with campus organizations and in fields of study, so often it’s tough to find opportunities that get you outside a box or fit into study and work schedules.
That’s why Shagun Kamboj thought of an idea: Start the GCU Volunteer Club with the goal to gather and share on a website all the opportunities to volunteer in the community at gcuvolunteer.club.
“I'm a pre-med student, so I want to do everything, and everything but my schedule is all over the place, so to find the right time is always hard,” she said, sharing the website’s calendar and the club's 5:30 p.m. Thursday meeting time. “I want this club to be an access point where every student knows where to go to find these opportunities.”
Like so many of the organizers, she speaks with excitement about her club.
“It's a way to give back to your community that has always given back to you. The reason why I've always loved volunteering is because I've done it since I was a little girl, and my parents always took me. It meant a lot to me.
“God has given us so much, everything we have until this day, so it’s just having simple ways to give back is so important. That's why this club means a lot to me. Yeah, I'm really passionate about it.”
To see the latest updates and listing of student clubs, go to @GCUClubs on Instagram.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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