Mandy Escobedo is new to Citrus, majoring in psychology and looking to make new friends. But she doesn’t know where to look.
Someone like her needs a community to be a part of. On Monday, Sept. 14, she got the chance to find one at Club Rush.
Club Rush is a two-day event that takes place every fall and spring semester where the clubs of Citrus gather at the Campus Center Mall to promote themselves to the student population.
This semester’s Club Rush was a lively affair that featured a variety of on-campus organizations. From the Gender and Sexuality Alliance to the Engineering Club, over a dozen clubs stood united in their shared goal of showing everyone what they had to offer.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., students from all over campus stopped by to visit the booths that were lined up, each representing a different club. They were free to visit tables where they could learn about the clubs and sign up for the chance to join their community and foster their interests, passions and career aspirations with like-minded people.
Club Rush gives an important opportunity not just to the attendees, but to the clubs involved.
The Ecology and Community Outreach Club went into the event not even a month old and they saw success beyond their wildest expectations. So many students expressed an interest in their mission that by the end the ECO Club was left with almost three pages worth of signups and a promising future ahead.
The Computer Science Club was another organization that was only around for a month, and similarly they also managed to find the exposure that they needed.
“So many people that see and hear about coding think that it’s kind of scary,” said Dominic Zavala, the president of the Computer Science Club.
“They’re afraid of coding, but they don’t know that we need them.”
At their booth they had a special bit of entertainment for attendees to enjoy. Students stopped by to play computer games that were made by their programmers, including a recreation of Flappy Bird where the Citrus College logo replaced the titular bird.
“We’re all computer scientists and we all want to collaborate and do our best,” Zavala said.
They weren’t the only ones who expressed an appreciation for unity.
The Latinos Unidos Student Association—also known as L.U.S.A.—is a club that’s dedicated to celebrating Latino heritage and helping the students of Citrus in any way that they can. For them it’s all about showcasing the beauty of their culture and creating an environment where their members can be themselves.
“We’re here at Club Rush to just let people know that we’re here on campus if they need a helping hand or a place to connect with others here on campus so that they don’t feel alone,” said Jade López, the president of L.U.S.A.
Club Rush is a vital way for them to introduce their community to Citrus’s student population.
“It’s good because not only does it let us connect with the other clubs, but it lets us make that one-on-one in-person connection with students,” López said.
Escobedo was one of the students that L.U.S.A. connected with on Monday, but she didn’t just stop at their booth. She also went to the E.C.O. Club, the Citrus Business Association and the Foster/Kinship Care Education Program and signed up for them all.
Jeneveve Pérez, a Visual Arts major in her junior year, was another attendee who spoke with L.U.S.A. She said that she met some of her friends in the Gender and Sexuality Alliance because of a previous Club Rush.
At its core, Club Rush is about connecting students.
“I know we’re all in different clubs, but we all come together in this event just to make this big community for our students,” López said.
