Paul Carbrey wants to talk to students about Christ.
His club, UB for Christ, focuses helping others develop as people and to be conscious of God and what God is doing, he said. To Carbrey, a senior nursing major, the concept is more than cultural.
Thursday’s Involvement Fair was full of clubs like Carbrey’s, who look to reach out to the general student population and garner interest for their group. The event took place in the Student Union, where various tables were set up in a fashion that allowed students to move swiftly from table to table and ask different clubs questions.
“Usually there’s just a few tables on the edges of the union,” Carbrey said. “When there are so few people it’s easy for students to just walk by and put their heads down. With an event like this, it’s more welcoming and easier for students to participate.”
Carbrey said he often finds himself approaching people, rather than vice versa. This hesitation may be from the nature of the club, but Carbrey said he always loves to discuss the matter.
The Involvement Fair is held twice a year, once in the middle of the fall semester and once in the beginning of the spring.
“By having it when the semester has already begun to pick up, most students have already settled into their schedule and they’re more willing to join something,” said Allison McCarthy, the graduate assistant of late night programming.
McCarthy helped organize the event by emailing clubs about the opportunity.
For clubs that didn’t make the cut, there was still a “spotlight area” which was interchangeable and allowed clubs to make announcements about upcoming events and raise awareness, even if only briefly.
UB Comics, a smaller group on campus, hopes that the event will bring them new members and more attention.
“We only have 12 members, which is the minimum amount,” said Kelly Camacho, a junior sociology major and president of UB Comics. “We flyer a lot but other than that we don’t get the word out enough.”
The group has already seen some hope as passing students signed into their email sheet and may attend upcoming coming meetings.
To Sophia Wu, a sophomore anthropology major, the event is really about bringing awareness to the clubs.
She is part of the committee for Relay for Life, an event at the end of April that allows clubs and other groups of students to help raise money for cancer research. She was looking to recruit students to join the committee and help in the last couple of months of planning for the event.
“We fundraise throughout the year but this allows us to raise awareness about Relay for Life, since it’s our big event,” Wu said.
Alpha Epsilon Delta, the pre-health fraternity, was also present at the event.
Susie Ghobrial, a senior biomedical sciences major and representative for the group, said she’s seen many people approach the table.
“People come by just to ask questions about our organizations,” Ghobrial said. “Even if they aren’t a pre-health major they’re just curious about what we are.”
The organization hosts a variety of events, which is their main source of advertising.
Tori Roseman is the senior features editor and can be reached at tori.roseman@ubspectrum.com.
