By Lauren Campbell, Staff Writer
Originally Published April 23, 2024
Great news for aspiring beekeepers, bookworms, and ping-pong enthusiasts: Saint Vincent College (SVC) has announced three brand-new clubs-the Beekeeping Club, the Book Club, and the Ping-Pong Club.
At SVC, students are encouraged to think outside the box and bring their ideas and thoughts to their friends and peers–sometimes, that might include developing a new club or two! Senior student Adam Koscielicki is the president of the Ping Pong Club, which came about after he and his friends were disappointed to find that there were no ping-pong tables in Rooney Hall.
“My roommates and I used to live in Wimmer, and now we all live together in Rooney, but there's no ping-pong table in Rooney.” said Koscielicki. “We really missed playing ping pong every night, and we just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a ping pong club?’”
Koscielicki and his roommates, now club officers, have big plans for the club’s future, including ensuring every dorm building has a ping-pong table and organizing charity tournaments to be held in the Carey Center.
Dr. Michelle Duennes, Professor of Biology and faculty advisor for the new Beekeeping Club, said the idea for the club was brought up by a student in her class, club president Jacob Krumenaker, after she talked about her research on bumblebees in class. The idea turned into a club that learns about and celebrates all kinds of bees and focuses on native bee conservation. The club plans on hosting events with a live bee colony to teach people on campus about native bees and to partner with a local beekeeper at some point in the future.
“I’m excited that there is a group of students on campus that want to learn more about bees,” said Duennes. “I think there’s a lot of interest in them because they’re in the media, and beekeeping is popular. I’m really excited about just the fact that any student wants to learn about bees for fun.”
The idea for a book club is not new at SVC, as there has been a reading club or two that unfortunately fizzled out in the past. Luckily for the book lovers on campus, the new Book Club is starting this semester.
Club president Samantha Lantz, junior education major, started the club hoping that readers would have a place to talk about their favorite books and learn about new books they may have yet to hear of. The handful of avid readers on campus allowed the club to make a return and have high hopes for its future.
“I hope to make the Book Club bigger,” said Lantz. “Some plans will hopefully allow us to go off campus to meet different authors. It will be a life-changing experience if we meet an author and talk to them about how they came up with the book. The other plans that are in the works are to do things like coloring your bookmarkers, going to used book sales, and more.”
Check out the board beside the Wellness Center in the Carey Center for more information on these and other new clubs.
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