The Spring 2024 Student Involvement Fair (SIF) took place on Feb. 2 from 2–5 p.m. in the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center (Rec Center). There are currently over 400 student-run organizations at Hopkins, many of which were represented at SIF this semester, waving club-themed posters and sign-up sheets for interested students. The fair featured a range of organizations and societies, including sports clubs, dance teams and a capella groups.
In an interview with The News-Letter, freshman Jeevika Setzer described her reasons for attending the event.
“I was interested in learning about different things to be engaged in, because I’ve done some things around [campus], but I haven’t committed to an extracurricular where I can really develop or gain leadership positions over time,” she said. “I [hope] to find something where I can put in a lot of effort and [which I can] really engage with.”
Like many students attending SIF this semester, Setzer wasn’t searching for any society or department in particular but instead wanted to gain a better idea of the opportunities available to her at Hopkins.
Freshman Jazzlyn Fernandez also attended SIF in order to inform herself about new organizations on campus. She described her appreciation of the event in an interview with The News-Letter.
“It’s a great way to meet new people and make a difference,” she said. “I did some research to see what I could be interested in. I found a few newsletters that I’m very excited about, as well as some pre-health organizations.”
SIF was hosted by the Leadership Engagement and Experiential Development (LEED) office to provide students with the opportunity to learn about various campus departments and student organizations.
In an email to The News-Letter, Senior Director of LEED Calvin Smith described his office’s role in organizing SIF this semester.
“The LEED office collaborates with the staff at the [Rec Center] to secure the space and make sure it is prepared to host the event,” he wrote. “We reach out to the student organizations and campus partners on Hopkins Groups to get them to sign up for a table at SIF.”
Junior Kylie Minniti attended the event as a representative for her organization, Women’s Club Basketball. As a member of the Executive Board, she is responsible for organizing practices, games and drills for her club. In an interview with The News-Letter, she described her hopes for SIF, both this semester and in the future.
“I hope to see more humanities clubs because I’m a humanities major. I haven’t been able to find any yet, so I’m hoping that something will appeal to me,” Minniti explained. “I [also] hope to see more attendance by people in different grades. I feel like sometimes it’s just freshmen, but I think even sophomores and juniors can find something they really like.”
To get involved at SIF this semester, students could write down their names and emails on Google spreadsheets, fill out interest forms or join GroupMe chats. Many organizations incentivized sign-ups by offering stickers, bookmarks and candy to prospective members.
Smith described the changes implemented to the involvement fair this semester in his email to The News-Letter.
“A new addition to the Spring Involvement Fair is the partnership with University Experiential Learning (UEL), which puts a focus on employment opportunities offered by departments and offices,” Smith wrote. “UEL partnered with a wide variety of departments and offices to promote jobs and other resources.”
He went on to describe the student body’s effort and enthusiasm in participating in SIF this semester.
“Our student organization leaders worked hard this fall semester, and they used SIF as an opportunity to showcase the great things that they’ve done and to recruit more members to their organizations,” he wrote. “As we went through and checked in with organizations, student leaders were very positive at the booths.”
