After being delayed for two days due to a snowstorm, Villanova held its annual Spring Involvement Fair in the Connelly Center this past Wednesday, Jan. 28, to kick off the end of the academic year.
Housed inside the Villanova Room and an outdoor tent, the fair allowed students to get involved in various on-campus organizations, whether to make new friends, develop a skill or add more to their week.
Villanova offers rich ways to get involved at the Fall and Spring Fairs, including big campus-wide organizations like Orientation and NOVAdance, as well as campus activities, identity-based organizations, music groups and service and volunteer organizations.
With just about everything to choose to join at Villanova, all students got a chance to meet organizations’ leaders and seek new opportunities for enriching themselves.
“I think the Involvement Fair is extremely important as it exhibits the diversity of interests on campus,” sophomore Emma Tiren said. “It also gives students the opportunity to continue to find connections and lasting friendships while pursuing various hobbies and outlets.”
For some, it can serve as an eye-opener for clubs they may not be otherwise aware of over the course of a normal year.
“I really enjoyed going to the Involvement Fair with my friends,” sophomore George Stattelman-Scanlan said. “Overall, I think it’s a great chance to learn about different clubs on campus. Like, I found out about clubs I didn’t even know existed.”
For the executive boards of clubs and organizations at Villanova, the Involvement Fair provided an opportunity to find students who may be interested in joining their organization, such as club sports.
“I tabled for Club Pickleball, and it went really well,” Club Pickleball President Justin Sebelin said. “We were able to meet a lot of new faces and talk with them about our amazing club, which was encouraging. It was also great seeing current members and friends stop by the table to say hi and show support.”
The Involvement Fair was also a time for a variety of Greek Life organizations that offer COB (continuous open-bidding) to show off everything about their organizations.
“I tabled for both Club Swim and Chi Omega,” sophomore Anna Rupp said. “I loved being able to meet potential new members and find people who share the same interests as me. I absolutely love the involvement [fair, everyone] is brimming with excitement, and it’s super cool to see the different organizations that we offer at Villanova.”
Even though student turnout may be lower for the Spring Involvement Fair when compared to the Fall Involvement Fair, there are still many students who show up to see what opportunities may be available for them.
“While it’s not quite the same scale as the fall club fair, it’s still really cool to see so many students and organizations come together,” Sebelin said. “At the end of the day, clubs like these are a huge part of what makes the Villanova experience.”
If any students missed the Involvement Fair because of class or other circumstances, there is still plenty of time to get involved.
The majority of on-campus clubs and organizations that were at the Involvement Fair are active on social media (such as The Villanovan, which also has different individual accounts for sections like news, opinion, culture and sports), with updates on how to join, about general body meetings, different social or service events or how to get into the GroupMes and the mailing lists of that organization.
This semester’s Spring Involvement Fair was a success, with many clubs gaining new members or applicants and engaging in passionate conversations about the organizations they’ve called home, along with free food and goodies that everyone who tabled had to offer.
The Spring Involvement Fair gave everyone who came by a chance to find their home here on Villanova’s campus in whatever activity caught their attention.
