As the school year starts, so do the back-to-school festivities like the Otter Showcase, which opens doors to all California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) students and gives them the opportunity to discover new clubs and organizations on campus.
There are clubs aimed toward helping students excel in their future careers, but students can also discover new hobbies they might find interesting, like the Plant Cultivation Club.
“I just started it, this is the first semester. I decided to start it because this is kind of a new program that’s in place, and I thought it was something that we needed,” said president of the Plant Cultivation Club Mabel Acosta, who is in her fourth year at CSUMB. “This would be a good way to get our name into the community and to get jobs, things like that.”
Other tables at the Otter Showcase were tailored toward specific career paths.
“We are the MAESTROs Project, and we are actually a funded project. We’ve been here for five years, this is our last year. We provide services to students here who are looking to become a teacher,” said MAESTROs Project Counselor Angela Serrano.
In order to help provide the best possible chances for students and teachers within the community, the MAESTROs Project helps support members through different speakers, workshops and informationals.
Some clubs also give students the outlet they need and supply them with a place where they can work creatively and showcase their work, like In The Ords.
“Our name is In The Ords, and it started a few years ago by a professor who wanted a campus literary journal for CSUMB. We basically publish students’ creative work in our publications each semester,” said In The Ords President Alana Hunsdorfer.
There are also clubs for students just looking to do something fun with a group of friends.
“The name of my club is RPG (Role Playing Game) Club; we started just to provide a place for people who love RPGs like D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) and other things that they don’t know,” said second-year Caila Sims.
Not only can RPG Club members divulge in their deepest fantasies, but they can also let go and be themselves without thinking that they’re being judged. The RPG Club’s main goal is to “provide a safe space for nerds to meet nerds,” according to their MyRaft page.
Along with these clubs, many more can be checked out on MyRaft for students who may have missed the Otter Showcase or want to take another look at the clubs and organizations at CSUMB.