Syncing up with a club — Student clubs and organizations provide personal and professional growth opportunities

During his sophomore year at the University of Idaho, Miller Sartori sat in a Jack in the Box near campus with a friend.

Together, they brainstormed ways they could incorporate more free food into their lives. Neither of them had been interested in joining a club, but they were interested in League of Legends.

“We were unfamiliar with the rules of clubs on campus, but we thought maybe if we created a club, we could hold meetings and the university would supply us with food,” Sartori said. “We played League of Legends and re- alized there’s a demand for a club like that on campus.”

Although they soon found out their plan wasn’t quite full-proof, as the university doesn’t pay for the food expenses of student clubs, Sartori and his friend decided to move forward with their idea.

Now a UI alumnus who is leaving to teach overseas in China, Sartori said creating and partici- pating in a club was a tremendous- ly valuable experience.

“As someone who started a club, it was exciting watching it take shape and become a real thing,” Sartori said. “And it was fun. It was really fun. ere’s something about that, you know, I wasn’t part of any other clubs — it’s kind of like one of those people who hates kids until they have one, that’s kind of what it was like for me.”

e League of Legends club Sartori co-founded is what Lynsie Clott, the UI coordinator of Lead- ership and Student Organizations, calls a registered student organiza- tion (RSO).

Clott said a student club is either classi ed as an RSO or an ASUI-a liated student organiza- tion, an ASO.

Clott said policy changes put into place at the end of last se- mester require all active clubs and organizations to register with the UI Department of Student In- volvement through VandalSync, an online platform for the organization and promotion of student organizations and events.

“ at will centralize all clubs on campus for students,” Clott said. “To get onto VandalSync and do a search within that page to nd all the club options that there are out there for them, it’s a great and easy way for students to explore and see all the di erent club types.”

ere are 289 student organiza- tion portals, which are similar to Facebook pages, divided into 21 categories on VandalSync. Clott said to look up a club, students can type keywords into the website’s search bar.

“If you want a general search, click Organizations and then you can just type any keywords in there because when clubs register, they have to list keywords associ- ated with their club,” Clott said. “When students are searching for whatever they’re interested in, let’s say art, they can type that word in and all clubs with ‘art’ as a key word will come up.”

Clott said searching VandalSync is also the rst step for students in- terested in creating a club, as they need to ensure the club they want to create doesn’t already exist. en, students can click the Reg- ister New Organization button on VandalSync to begin the process.

In addition to completing the required fields for their club’s VandalSync portal, Clott said a new student organization needs to upload a constitution, exam- ples of which can be found on VandalSync, have a UI faculty of staff advisor and visit the Department of Student Involve- ment to complete a 30 minute new club orientation.

Sartori said he encourages students who have an interest in something there isn’t yet a club for on campus to create their own.

“If you don’t see a club you want to join and you’re sitting there thinking, ‘Man, I wish they had this club or that club,’ you can be the one to start it,” Sartori said.

e League of Legends club continues to operate on campus, and has over 300 members on its Facebook page, although not all are active participants of the group. Sartori said in addition to being a fun experience during which he made lasting friend- ships, the club provided him with skills that helped him in a profes- sional environment.

“I was able to get an intern- ship that was all about marketing,” Sartori said. “I’ve never taken Econ classes, I’ve never taken market- ing classes, but I have spent hours and hours every week creating pro- motional materials for our club, managing social media and getting excited about our product meeting

with sponsors. at’s marketing. at counts.”

Similar to Sartori, Clott’s in- volvement in student organizations helped her make professional con- nections. She said it also helped her make some of her best friends.

“It’s a great way to meet like- minded people who share similar

interests and passions and create lasting friendships,” Clott said. “I’m a Vandal alumna who joined student clubs and the people I met in those clubs are still some of my best friends today.”

Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]

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