July 2–8, 2008, Number 499
Student Organizations Part 2
This week’s article is a continuation of last week, as I provide more information about student organizations on campus. For this week’s article I’ve chosen to look at the Religious, Service, and Ethnic & Cultural groups that are available to the students of Michigan Tech.
Religious
There are 22 different Religious groups that are a part of Michigan Tech. Many allow students to continue their personal walks of faith and work towards encouraging these students on their journey. From personal experience, I can say that many of these groups are comprised of wonderful people, providing great friendship and experiences that have helped me through my college years. There are many different types of organizations for those interested, ranging from specific religions to non-denominational (inviting all religion types to join together in unity). These options allow all students to find a group of people they can become close to.
Service
Many people enjoy helping others and so getting involved in one (or more) of the 29 service groups can assist those students looking for an opportunity to assist those in need. Habitat for Humanity is one of these organizations that work to help the local community. Others include: Circle K, Michigan Tech Student Foundation (MTSF), Society of Intellectual Sisters (SIS), and Standathon Student Organization just to name a few. These great organizations help not only the campus but work to help the local communities as well. I find that providing these services help give students that chance to do something good while in college.
Ethnic & Cultural
Michigan Tech is comprised of about 9% International Students (about 585 students). So these students have come together realizing the need for Ethnic and Cultural organizations on campus. Currently there about 30 of this type of organizations on Michigan Tech’s campus, ranging from African Students Organizations, Chinese Student and Scholars, Keweenaw Pride, NOSOTROS, and many more. Being that our university is very diverse, these organizations are fairly popular. International students take pride in their culture and local students like to learn about them, so these organizations give students the chance to do so.
I’ve only explained a few of these organizations and so there are so many more for you and your students to learn about. The Student Organization Website, that I mentioned in the last article, contains more information for those that are interested. One thing I should mention, if your student can’t find a group up here that they are interested in, chances are they can find several others that like to do the same things as them and create a new organization. This is totally possible, so don’t let your students discount the opportunity to start something new when they come to Michigan Tech. One last bit of information I will mention is a special Michigan Tech tradition called K-Day (Keweenaw Day). For those that have not heard of this celebration, it is basically a half a day of school where (depending on the weather) students go out to McLain State Park and can learn about different student organizations. Many student groups set up tables with information and some even put on skits/shows for entertainment. There is usually free food and live music and everyone has a great time. For more information check out the K-Day 2008 website.
If there are any questions or comments about this article feel free to email me at my personal email address. As always suggestions for future articles are welcomed. Wishing everyone a great Fourth of July weekend!
Until next week,
- Michigan Technological University
- 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295
- 906-487-1885