As promised in one of my earlier posts, here is my scoop on getting involved in extracurriculars at Yale. Since my freshman year, I have tried to be involved in as many diverse and random activities as possible. I have given tours, practiced with the Club Table Tennis Team, played the cow-bell with the YPMB (Yale Precision Marching Band), called admitted students for the admissions office, and coordinated the activities of the Yale Scientific Magazine and the Yale Undergraduate Society for Biological Sciences. Here, however, I will talk about three ventures that I have started at Yale, namely a diabetes forum, a carrom club, and a classic rock society.
But first, a bit about starting a registered organization on campus; even though Yale has 800+ organizations, there can be things that you want to do that do not exist on campus. This has a simple conceptual solution (though a harder practical one): start your own student organization. Yale is truly great in that it gives you the liberty to do whatever you want (as long as it is constructive). The application for registration can be found on the student affairs website (the link is posted in my 21 websites post). Now, I talk briefly about the above mentioned three organizations:
1. Diabetes Forum (YDF: The Undergraduate Diabetes Forum): This is an organization that we started this year to gather the diabetic community on campus. We plan to host talks by diabetic educators, conduct fund-raising events, help admissions and the resource office on disabilities in recruiting diabetic students, and volunteer for national organizations such as the JDRF and the ADA.
Already, we are preparing for our first grand fund-raising event. It is going to be a dance party in Commons in the spring. We are planning on getting top of the line lighting and sound systems (think Electro and Safety Dance; if you do not know what these are, you will soon). We already have two fantastic student DJs working on the music for the event. The party would also have a dance-off segment, wherein whoever can dance most energetically for four hours (i.e. the duration of the event) will be given an iPod Touch. All the money raised from the party will go to JDRF. Stay tuned for this event…its going to be awesome!
2. Stairway to Heaven—A Music Appreciation Group: I started this organization with the help of my buddy and former suite-mate James Luo (SY’12) in the common room of B33 L Dub last year (see the creativity that L Dub stimulates!). We are a 15 member group that loves listening to old classic rock. And that is precisely what we do in our meetings. We gather together, put our turntable on and listen to some Zeppelin, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones…you name it! With a new board this year, the group continues to do well. We are planning on doing many movie nights, expanding our vinyl collection, and maybe doing a rock band session.
And if you haven’t already seen the Gibson double neck in action, this is the coolest video ever: Jimmy Page and his double-neck
3. The Carrom Club: I started this organization this year as well. Before I go on, here is what a Carrom board looks like:
The game is basically a 2D version of pool. It is played with wooden coins instead of balls. You have black and white coins in place of solid and striped balls. You have a bigger coin called a striker (your cue ball) that you use to pocket either black or white coins. The game is extremely fun because you can use all sorts of whacky angles to pocket coins. If you are a math, science or engineering person, you will definitely love it! Furthermore, the game is extremely popular in the Indian subcontinent, and parts of Europe and Australia. I will be having an open house in my suite (SY E44) once we have the boards in order. Of course, everyone in Saybrook would be invited to come check it out.
If any of these ideas interest you, do let me know. We always love new members. The bottom-line for this post, however, is that if you have an interest that you care about and that you are not being able to fulfill through the current organizations on campus, take the initiative, find like-minded people and start an organization. Honestly, freshman year is the right time to do this so that you can give the organization the time that it needs, and so that you can nurture it over your four years here.
This is all I had to say about extracurriculars for now. However, I will be back with a string of articles on the histories and mysteries of Saybrook soon.
Comments are appreciated.