At UCLA, students across all different majors participate in many clubs, whether it is to learn new skills, be a part of a community, or, importantly, to have fun.
Hayden Longwell, English major and first year at UCLA, is a part of Shenanigans Comedy Club. Longwell joined Shenanigans Comedy Club as a creative outlet and to have fun.
“They make digital and live sketches, perform improv, and do standup comedy. It’s a really fun environment with a lot of creative opportunities…I wanted to have an outlet for creative writing, have fun, and meet new people,” said Longwell.
Career development is also an important factor for students to join clubs, as echoed by Nahn Nguyen, UCLA student and member of the Bruin Advertising and Marketing Team, working in the graphic design subteam.
“I want to go into marketing and graphic design and AdTeam is one of UCLA’s most established competitive marketing clubs with great connections, activities, and resources for my career development,” said Nguyen.
“I’m in the graphic design sub-team of AdTeam, which’s main role is to condense all the research and creative execution into the plan book and slide presentation,” said Nguyen.
AdTeam competes in the annual NSAC competition, this year hosted by Tide.
In this competition, the club works on “conducting marketing research, choosing media placement, innovating advertising execution, and visualizing all the information on a plan book and presentation,’ said Nguyen.
Clubs also provide different environments for students to be a part of, and grow and learn with a new community.
“It’s a really fun environment with a lot of creative opportunities. Everyone in the club comes from a variety of majors. We have roles in the club that are administrative/just help keep the club going,” said Longwell.
AdTeam does the same through fostering engagement with students in the club, along with the professional development gained.
“Apart from the professional part, AdTeam is a very welcoming and active community of talented individuals. We do bondings, retreats, collective work sessions, alumni meets, workshops for the UCLA population, and more!” said Nguyen.
Clubs range from comedy, to advertising, to even politics. Nima Kamali, first year at UCLA, and a policy lead of Bruin Policy Institute, explained why joined Bruin Policy Institute.
“I decided to join it because I was looking for ways to get involved with politics on campus but wanted to focus more on the research/advisory side as opposed to advocacy and BPI has great research and education materials. I also wanted a smaller community to get acquainted which is hard to find in larger political clubs like Bruin Democrats,” said Kamali.
Computer science is another field that is well-represented in clubs across campus, such as ACM Hack.
“(They) teach software development skills of all kinds to UCLA students on campus through workshops we host such as Hackschool and Stackschool. We also develop projects amongst the board such as the Hack website,” said Max Lee, intern at ACM Hack.
As an intern, Lee has many different responsibilities at ACM Hack.
“I am currently an intern, helping run and plan workshops, such as Hackcraft currently. I also contribute to the development team by working on team projects, like the Threejs project currently,”
UCLA’s vibrant club atmosphere offers students across all majors invaluable opportunities for personal growth, skill development, and community engagement. Whether it’s finding a creative outlet, pursuing career interests, or delving into a passion for advocacy or technology, these clubs provide platforms for students to flourish both personally and professionally.
