Student involvement matters: good grades, brain development, psychological wellbeing, leadership skills and multicultural awareness all come from engaging in student clubs and projects, according to College Data.

College Data research has shown that “employers rated the students that had been at least minimally involved in co-curricular activities as more hireable than those who were not involved at all. Employers rated highly-involved students as more career ready than minimally-involved or uninvolved students.”

Discovering their interests also helps students develop abilities and skills that they may have been unaware of. Students can grow confidence, acquire new experiences and prepare for future careers or be more independent.

Student center games

Or maybe you just need a break? In between on-campus classes, students can come and play on the game room equipment in the former student cafeteria. Air hockey, foosball, ping-pong or pool games are available.

Hawk Hangout Canvas shell

Hawk Hangout is in Canvas on the dashboard for students to click on to learn more about campus activities, entertainment or extra-curricular clubs provided at UCC for them. Students can also get involved in a Hawk Hangout activity for connecting, sharing interests, discovering new interests, making friends, building resumes, practicing leadership and enjoying positivity.

“Hawk Hangout was created so more students had access to everything; it’s a lot about student engagement, giving students the opportunity to engage in student activities, clubs on campus, and information on how to re-certify their clubs or gets clubs started,” Nakaela Hunt, ASUCC Business Manager, said.

The history of Hawk Hangout is still quite recent. Approximately within the last academic year or two ago, it was created by Phi Theta Alpha and ASUCC. The main goal in its creation was to maintain the college’s mission of encouraging goals and supporting student connectivity.

“Hawk Hangout is online and utilized to put information out to students, especially about clubs, ASUCC, and PTK, for example,” Hunt added.

The Hawk Hangout Canvas shell gives modules such as welcome, Student Voice, ASUUC, Student Services, Clubs and Activities, Phi Theta Kappa, The Mainstream UCC student newspaper, and Safer Steps, Safer Students.  Students can also go into the modules to start a discussion or ask a question or click into the announcements section to see what’s going on.

Soon, Hawk Hangout is looking into an easier app for students to navigate, to be even more accessible.

Clubs on campus

Many clubs are now active such as UCC Forestry Club, Spanish Club, Riverhawk Wrenches, Geology Club, Queer Students Advocacy, Engineering Club, Computer Club, and UCC Veterans Club.

Some of the clubs offer advancement opportunities or scholarships, like the Phi Theta Kappa honors club for students. Membership is based on completion of 12 credit hours or more and a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher.

In Spanish Club, students at any skill level can communicate with others who share their passion for language learning.

In Queer Students Advocacy, students can express themselves openly without fear or ridicule.

“If you want to start anything on campus, all you need is a ‘flint and a spark’ and an idea and your passion for it,” journalism merit award student Robin Bruns says.

Bruns is in the Spanish Club and Queer Students Advocacy and is considering starting another club, called, Students for Liberation: “I get to maximize my time on campus, I love being at UCC and I never got the opportunity in high school to really participate in clubs or after school activities.”

Bruns added, “I missed out on the friendship, socialization, development and leadership skills.”

To create a club, students need to go to the UCC website, select Campus Life and then under “ASUCC Clubs and Organizations,” select “Creating a New Club” for forms to fill out, for club petition, to identify a student to serve as a Club Representative, and to identify a club advisor. There is also a template to develop a constitution for your club. On this webpage forms can be submitted to the ASUUC president. Then the next step is to meet at the ASUCC board meeting where your form then gets reviewed. Once approved the club officer will then meet with Marjan Coester, who is the director for student engagement, for a club orientation.

To get a complete list of active clubs, contact Marjan Coester director for student engagement, and Phi Theta Kappa chapter adviser at 541-440-7749.

ASUCC also oversees several other student-oriented services or, students can reach out for more information to any of the members of the current student leadership:  Larisa Czernowski ASUCC President, Anthony Gordon, ASCUCC Public Relations Officer: 541-440-7849; Nakaela Hunt, ASUCC Business Manager: 541-440-7849; Dexter Patching, ASUCC Vice President: 541-440-7849

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