ClubFest is one of Iowa State’s most prominent events to showcase student organizations. It allows clubs to reach out to students and offers students a place to discover organizations and potentially join them. Around 350 clubs attended ClubFest, giving students ample opportunities to discover organizations, which opens up a variety of experiences for both attending students and participating clubs alike.
James Gninefou, a senior in chemical engineering, represented the men’s basketball club at ClubFest. Gninefou mentioned that the basketball club sent out emails before ClubFest, which made people more interested.
“Sometimes people look at Club Basketball and think it’s too competitive for them,” Gninefou said. “They don’t even want to try out. So the email is better to [approach more people]. ClubFest is just for face-to-face.”
He also said basketball club isn’t just for competing, but also for bonding with others.
“I hope especially early participants [get] some friends or some people, even if it’s not a part of club basketball, just to hang out with outside of [it] or even hoop with outside of club basketball,” Gninefou said. “Freshman year helped me a lot [and I] know a lot of new people because I only knew my roommates, and playing basketball really helped me know a lot of different majors and not just people in my major.”
He also encouraged people to go to tryouts even if they do not make the team.
“Just give it a shot,” Gninefou said. “You never really know. And even if you don’t make the team, you can probably meet someone else that you can hoop with, or you can bond with, and it’s a place to meet people, so don’t be too scared.”
Shamitha Mattaparti, a junior in management information systems, and Sithmi Hewage, a junior in chemistry, represented the Iowa State Chapter of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as president and treasurer respectively. The Iowa State Chapter fundraises for UNICEF.
“We raise funds each semester at football games [and] at stands like lemonade stands and hot chocolate [stands],” Mattaparti said. ‘Then we donate those funds to the UNICEF.”
They encouraged people to join, learn about what is happening in the world and serve the community.
“I think they should really consider joining because there’s a lot of things you can learn about, like so many topics that are going on in the world, and also, this is a really good time to connect with people, work with people and also get some volunteering done and serve the community,” Hewage said.
Mattaparti added that joining would also be great for resume building.
“It is a pretty good organization for your resume because UNICEF is a huge thing, even for companies because there are some companies who are huge into volunteering activities,” Mattaparti said.
Jackson Phillips, a junior double majoring in finance and agricultural business, represented the Finance Club as the social media chair. He said that they have been very successful at ClubFest.
“I know we had the lull earlier when people aren’t really coming out at 11, but things have really picked up,” Phillips said. “We’ve had a lot of folks come, a lot of people scan the QR code. I think if I check my phone, I probably have like 40 new followers on Instagram, which I would say are pretty good numbers because maybe they’re actually interested. Obviously, we’ll see, but we hope they come.”
He expressed that the club’s purpose was for networking.
“We bring in companies and just try to connect them to students to give them the best possible opportunity to succeed in getting an internship for the summer or a career after they’re done here,” Phillips said. He also gave his reason people should join the club: food.
“We have free food,” Phillips said. “We’re in college. We all love a good meal that’s catered, and we don’t have to pay for it. When we announce that we’re having Panda Express, attendance usually spikes a little bit. [It] goes up about 50%.”
Kadin Fox, a first-year in aerospace engineering, went to ClubFest to see what he could do on campus.
“I wanted to check out clubs,” Fox said. “Mainly, I wanted to see what there is on campus that I can do. I’ve been looking for stuff to do that’s not in the dorm, which is always a little bit boring, but I’m impressed by the amount [of clubs] that are here.”
He also showed interest in some aerospace clubs.
“I’ve been looking a lot at the aerospace clubs since that’s related to my major, and there are some really cool ones here,” Fox said.
He was also surprised by the Cardinal Space Mining Club.
“I don’t know if I’ll be joining, but space mining club… I didn’t know we had that, like a competition for that,” Fox said. “That’s really cool. I’d like to join if I could offer something to them. It’s just really cool to hear about stuff like that.”
Students who missed out on ClubFest can learn more about all clubs offered here.
