Enhancing your college experience with FSU clubs

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: ROBERT WATSON
Fanshawe students participating in Anime Club activities.

Clubs are an essential part of Fanshawe that bring people from different backgrounds, ethnicities and with different interests together. Fanshawe offers approximately 25 to 35 clubs each school year depending on what students decide to carry forward from previous years and the new clubs that are established.

Kevin Kaisar, VP of internal affairs, said that the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) offers a variety of different clubs that can be categorized by program or cultural and religious views. They are mainly based upon people's interests, hobbies and backgrounds.

“Clubs are honestly such a powerful way to get in touch with people… lets say that they have shared interests or a common background or basically anything in common. That's usually what people look for when they are trying to make new friends,” Kaisar said.

Joining a club can enhance a student's overall college experience, as being involved in the school's offered activities creates a connectedness to the school and the people around them, that they may otherwise might not have had the opportunity to meet.

“It can be hard to meet new people so if it's already been established that there is a similar interest, it makes starting a friendship easier,” said Cara Elliot, president of Fanshawe's Anime Club.

For new students, clubs are a great way to meet new people. At the start of the school year, Fanshawe sets up an area outside of the bookstore in F-hallway devoted specifically to clubS. This day allows clubs at Fanshawe to be displayed and gives students the opportunity to meet the club founders and sign up for what they are interested in. Kaisar assures that if a student misses the chance of signing up at this time, they can visit fsu.ca/clubs which has a list of clubs and their description. It also has the contact information of the club executives so that students who wish to join the club can email them directly.

Can't find a club that you're interested in and have a great idea for a club? No problem. According to Kaisar, it is easy to start up a new club. All you need is five people that are interested in being a part of the club with you. If the club has 10 or more students, then funding from the FSU is provided to help pay for club activities and meetings and other resources that the club might need.

“You have all these other resources at your disposal to find even more people because we have 15,000 students over here so there's bound to be someone who likes what you like,” Kaisar said. To start a club all you have to do is get in contact with Kevin Kaisar directly or email FSU.

Kaisar spoke of the importance of diverse student groups from different cultures and encourages students to participate in being a part of displaying the diversity at Fanshawe.

“The main thing we want to achieve at Fanshawe Anime is for everyone to have fun. Anime Club is a break from school where you can just relax and be yourself. I try to keep that in mind for every event and regular meeting we have,” Elliot said.

Other Fanshawe club executives were contacted but did not respond.