More than 400 student groups took to the Main Green last Thursday to participate in the annual Fall Activities Fair, hosted by the Student Activities Office and the Undergraduate Council of Students.
Each year, the event allows student organizations to showcase their work and recruit new members, according to a campus-wide UCS email. Organizations in attendance ranged from club sports teams to program houses to identity and cultural groups.
Some students described this year’s in-person activities fair as a refreshing contrast to the virtual programming of previous academic years. Alana Cho ’24 attended the fair over Zoom during her first year which made “it a little bit harder to know about what extracurriculars were going on.”
But Cho said that attending the fair in person this year was “a cool way” to learn more about opportunities at Brown, emphasizing that the individuals running booths “were super helpful (and) very friendly.”
Grace Chong ’24 noted that booths with interactive displays caught her interest the most. “I went into (the fair) not really looking to sign up for clubs, and I ended up signing up for two,” she said.
But both Cho and Chong cited difficulties navigating the event, and said they would have preferred physical signs charting the different sections of the fair so they would not miss clubs of interest. “I was a little lost,” Cho explained.
Students also had the opportunity to talk with club leaders and join new organizations. Vikas Rana ’24, the president of TEDxBrownU — an organization that empowers community members to share stories through live speeches — ran a table at the fair for the first time this semester. He said that the event “generates a lot of excitement, because seeing all those people in one area” makes students “more (receptive) to listening to different clubs.”
Some clubs saw a boom in interest at the fair. The 180 Degrees Consulting Club, which provides consulting services to businesses and nonprofits in the Providence community, received nearly 90 sign-ups from students, almost doubling the club’s size, according to Co-President Emily Moini ’23.
“To see it all come to life at once on the Main Green is very inspiring and makes me grateful to be a part of a community that’s so active,” Moini said.
Elysée is a writer for metro, a producer for the Bruno Brief podcast and an aspiring card game creator. She is a second-year student studying International and Public Affairs on the Policy and Governance Track.
