Awaiting registration and approval, Scottish and Irish Otters (SCOTters) is an upcoming club which aims to be open to all Cal State Monterey Bay students interested in exploring Scottish and Irish culture, having fun and connecting with other students.
The club aims to add more diversity to the number of clubs on campus and allow students to gather and connect over the same interest for Scottish and Irish heritage through events such as festivals, with traditional food and music.
“What inspired me the most was I am part Scottish and Irish and that did kind of fuel the fire of my inspiration to make this club,” said Makena Keran, a freshman marine science major and potential founder of the club. “Just think like the country’s culture and values are just really beautiful and I’d love to share that with everybody here at CSUMB.”
Currently Keran is the only board member, the club board will be built after it gets into the stage of officiality.
“I do have a couple people on social media that are interested, very interested in being a part of this club already,” said Keran. “I think those people would be part of the board, once we start getting the club running.”
SCOTters would be open to all students even if they don’t share Irish or Scottish ascendence.
A big challenge for Keran has been finding a balance between her schoolwork with planning club details.
“Other challenges have been just finding the time to like, put my plans together and balancing schoolwork and other classes and stuff like that,” said Keran.
SCOTters aims to correct misconceptions that society has about Scottish and Irish culture. One of them is related to food.
“I think a stereotype toward Scottish heritage is probably, like, all they eat is haggis or unseasoned food,” said Keran. “I think we would want to break that stereotype by having a cultural food kind of night,” said Keran.
Before the club was launched, a dozen of students showed interest through social media stories and publications. Gavin Eilts, a freshman marine science major, has known the club president even before attending CSUMB. When the club starts he wants to pursue a board position.
“Most likely Treasurer, but it is subject to change still,” said Eilts.
In case he gets the treasurer role, Eilts has a project to travel to festivals in Scotland.
“Because we feel like that would be a really valuable experience,” said Eilts. “For our club and also it’s just very fitting with the whole topic.”
Liam Wayne, a sophomore kinesiology major student, decided to join the club because of his Scottish heritage from his mom’s side.
“Hopefully we can do a lot of meetings, and I just get to meet new people,” said Wayne. “That’s why I joined the club.”
Although the club is not officially registered, it held its first unofficial meeting on Oct. 14 at Tanimura & Antle Library.