Throughout campus, clubs provide students with entertainment and connections outside of their usual circles. This semester, clubs have joined forces, creating partnerships that fuse the values of student groups on campus. EcoPax and Advocates as well as the Latino Student Union and the Art Club have recently experimented with such collaborations.

Carmen Merino, senior 

biology major, the vice president of the Student Senate and president of EcoPax, has made it her personal mission to create room for all clubs and students among events on campus. 

“As someone who’s been here for four years, I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of fantastic opportunities for connection on campus,” Merino said. “There has been this separation among groups that’s caused a strange amount of tension.”

Emphasizing inclusivity and acceptance, Merino continues to advocate for these values in both her positions, as seen in a recent clothing swap and fashion show event presented by both EcoPax and Goshen College Advocates. 

Peace Muhagachi, senior sociology major and president of GC Advocates, reiterated the cooperative spirit by initiating conversation between the two clubs.

Encouraged by the desire of students to have access to gender affirming clothes, she decided to try to set something up: “I just reached out to Carmen from EcoPax and they brought up the idea of doing the collaboration as well as the fashion show.”

For Muhagachi, it was important that there was purpose as to why each club was there, saying, “there was sort of like that intentionality that we had … promoting sustainability within the clothing swap, and also messaging about how your clothes and your identity are important.”

Fernando Daza, junior a business and peace, justice and conflict studies double major, an LSU leader and participant of the fashion show, pointed out that even if a club that you’re a part of is not involved, participating in another group’s event is still a form of interconnection: “Even though it wasn’t [LSU’s] collaboration, it’s like a way to, I guess, empower collaborations,” he said. “We’re not part of the planning, we’re part of the showing up and making things interesting.” 

While Daza is a big proponent of showing up for club events, he also supports associations directly through his leadership role in LSU. With tight budgets in previous years, campus clubs had to be very intentional on what events they hosted. They were limited on what they could provide, such as food and activities. 

Now, according to Daza, clubs are encouraged to connect their work with the community more often, and in doing so, they get a boost of financial support from the events department. “We’re able to have students connect to that community. There you have relationships — you have more input on things you can do, and you also get a little support to have the event be a better thing,” he said. 

Because of this, LSU has started to reach out to the community outside of campus, with an event coming up this Friday, Oct. 25, in conjunction with both the Art Club and the City of Goshen’s Boys and Girls Club. 

Aaliah Higareda, junior graphic design major, and the president of the Art Club, added, “The fact that the club budgets are only $500 for the whole year, it’s harder to finance these events. It’s a lot easier to collaborate with all our clubs and make events even bigger,” she said.

Higareda maintains that it’s a great experience for everybody involved, with clubs making events better and students getting to hopefully participate in something that they are passionate about, no matter which club is heading the event.