This past Wednesday (9/17/14), Stockton held the Get Involved Fair, an event held every semester that showcases the many student run clubs and organizations at Stockton. I attended this event along with several other classmates. The event is designed to help students, primarily freshmen, get involved (as the name of the fair suggests) with the school by allowing them to find organizations that interest them.

Many of the clubs at this event are geared towards academics such as the Marine Science Club or the Stockton Biology Society. Some are geared towards community service, such as Circle K, and others are simply about having fun, like the Gaming Club or Quidditch Team. In addition to setting up creative and informative stands, clubs often give away free gifts and food to further sway students to join. Some clubs may also try a more aggressive approach to recruiting. One such approach is having a person run up and tell passerby’s face to face how great their program is and how perfect it would be for them to join. When this occurs, most of the time it is followed by a plea from the recruiters that play on the students’ heart strings. Since the students don’t want to hurt the recruiters’ feelings, they feel obligated to come to the organizations’ interest meeting.

All in all, I found the Get Involved Fair to be both informative and interesting. I joined 5 clubs and will be attending meetings throughout the week. This event definitely accomplished its goal of getting students involved, and I believe that every student should at least stop by one of these fairs. Something that I did find that could be improved on is that not all the clubs listed were actually at the event or some were only around for a short time. This makes students that couldn’t find the club have to find other means to contact them or else give up on joining it all together.

I found that the Get Involved Fair got me interested in things I would have never thought about joining. In a way, it kind of brought me out of my comfort zone and made me want to try new things. Because of the Get Involved Fair, I am joining the Quidditch Team, the Gaming Club, the Marine Science Club, the Deep Sea Fishing Club and I might even try to become an Ambassador. This event is a useful and engaging way for students to get involved and meet people with common interests.