Hi everybody! When I was a prospective student, I remember being really antsy to join a bunch of clubs and organizations in college. Even though I was excited, I was also really nervous about not being able to find or join clubs for my specific interests. By using Turf Dinner, I was able to easily find a bunch of groups that fit my interests and explore new topics that I ended up really loving. In hindsight, it’s not that surprising either due to the numerous and diverse array of clubs and orgs that the 5 Claremont Colleges have to offer!
5C ADVANTAGE:
A great advantage of the 5C consortium is the ability to participate and create clubs that may not have existed if it were only one school and their resources. Each college is relatively small and when we come together we are able to have a lot more resources and opportunities to plan fun events and gatherings. It all starts off with an event within the first few weeks of school called Turf Dinner!
TURF DINNER OVERVIEW:
Turf Dinner is a large assembly of the colleges where people eat, walk around and get acquainted with a large portion of the clubs around campus. In order to make sure no one is left out or misses the event, every dining hall is closed during that specific dinner so that all the students can gather around at the particular dining area where the event is being hosted (which rotates between the colleges every year). For added incentive, the colleges go all out to hire specialized caterers for the event so the food is really delicious! After finishing dinner, students can explore the long, stretching lines of tables that host each club and org. Each table is decorated to attract students to sign up for their club, usually asking for the name, email, school, and year of the student.
One concern I had about Turf Dinner was signing up for clubs that didn’t have many Scripps students or where the majority of students were from one of the other colleges. Luckily, most of the 5C students are really eager to meet people from the other colleges and help underclassmen create a support system to follow them through their undergrad. Also, to encourage the intermixing of students, the clubs will usually get more funding if there’s a wide variety of students from all of the 5 colleges that sign up for their club.
With the help of Turf Dinner, I was able to find the Eritrean and Ethiopian Student Association, the EMT Club, and the Claremont Comicbook Community. These groups helped me to stay connected with my culture and heritage, gain opportunities in STEM and medicine, and also explore a newly found interest in superheros!
I implore students that are interested in joining a lot of clubs and orgs or if you’re looking for one or two specific clubs to be on the look out for Turf Dinner and all the wonderful opportunities that come from it.
If you have any questions about Turf Dinner or 5C clubs & organizations, feel free to email me at steklay4066@scrippscollege.edu.