Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Sparticipation 2022 highlights: Students take a look at what MSU has to offer

August 31, 2022
<p>Students watch trainer Immanuel Corla in MMA Club during Sparticipation on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022 at Michigan State University.</p>

Students watch trainer Immanuel Corla in MMA Club during Sparticipation on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022 at Michigan State University.

Cherry Lane Field bustled with students on Tuesday afternoon at Sparticipation, with hundreds of clubs seeking to attract people will similar niche interests.

Members of Spartan Ski Club Whitley Cymbal and Matthew Miller were dressed in beach attire as they walked around asking students if they were ready to have a good time this year.

“We have done this method each year where we just walk around and we sell our club,” Miller said. “We want our club to be as personable as possible because we are such a huge club … we want everyone to feel like they are welcome on a personable basis rather than just sitting at a table and having to talk to them that way.”

Spartan Ski Club has become the largest social club in the Big Ten, pulling in students across majors and interests. Many members do not even share a love for skiing or other winter sports-- but rather throwing parties and attending socials with other Spartans. 

“If you want to have fun and you want to party with people and you have love in your heart," Miller said. "Ski Club is the best place to be.”

Impact FM ran the music at Sparticipation this year, DJing the event as well as putting together shows from the MSU Accafellas and the dance team. Station Manager Delaney Rogers put together all the background music for students to peddle their clubs to. 

“I was here last year just getting started in Impact and I was learning how to do it all,” Rogers said. “Now after having one year under my belt, it’s been a lot of fun. It was a bit stressful this morning. It’s a long day just getting stuff set up, making sure that the music is ready, seeing there’s a bunch of volunteers ready, setting up the tents, making sure we have the right equipment, so it takes a whole team of our staff.”

Rogers said she was excited to collaborate with other creative clubs that embrace music in the same way, eager to see the MSU Accafellas' performance, which got the crowd energized in the year prior.

Students with green thumbs lined up in front of a wide variety of environmentally-focused organizations.

Attracting entomology majors, members of MSU Bug Club kept insects on display to attract those wanting to cuddle with a cockroach. 

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“Obviously, it’s quite a shocker,” entomology junior Claire Komarzec said. “Most people bring poster boards and candy, but it's live insects. It's one of the coolest things ever.”

Komarzec said that field trips, bug collecting and making insect displays brought in more people than they could ever imagine. Some students changed their major to entomology after joining the club.

“Last year was our first year at Sparticipation," Komarzec said. "We had so many people we couldn’t even fit them in the room."

Turning the corner of Cherry Lane, students were posing as wizards and throwing balls through hoops while riding broomsticks. The MSU Quidditch team decided to show off their skills with a pickup game, inviting students to join them. 

 “The best way to learn is to try it,” chemical engineering senior Ethan Wanous said. “A lot of people are a little hesitant at first.”

Wanous said that seeing new faces and trying to get people to join is the most thrilling challenge of Sparticipation. Usually, he said, once people try the game, they end up enjoying it.

Zoology senior Kaelynn Seestadt was able to find some fashionable friends in the Thrifting Club that shared here love for sustainability and style. 

“I grew up in not the best-off financially family so it's what I grew up with," Seestadt said. I'm glad to see that it's kind of become the norm, almost the mainstream.”

Seestadt said she is excited to see people wanting to be apart of clothing swaps and thrifting trips.

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President of the Planned Parenthood Generation Action and English junior Kattiah Richardson felt empowered running a booth that supported Planned Parenthood, after the recent obstruction of pro-abortion rights institutions. 

“It is especially important now because access to safe abortions is not [accessible],” Richardson said. “Lots of people are wanting condoms and information, and they are very scared. It’s important to talk about it.”

While some students reached out because they were concerned about recent Supreme Court rulings, many others were looking for other ways of birth control. Richardson was overwhelmed by the amount of students that came to them needing condoms.

The MSU Strength Augmenting Robotic eXoskeleton (or STARX) team offered students a chance to help design and create strength-augmenting exoskeleton suits that are then entered into competitions across the US and Canada.

“Our competition revolves around putting 50lbs on the suit and doing an obstacle course and doing efficiency tests,” electrical engineering senior Michael Stevenson, the club’s President said.

The competitions are meant to simulate crisis situations such as a firefighter carrying somebody out of a burning building.

“This is the next Iron Man,” Stevenson said. “It’s pretty cool to see.”

The Student Organized Autonomy Research group, or SOAR, displayed their fully autonomous-capable vehicle. This year, SOAR will be working on the software side of their project so that the car can run autonomously.

“Anybody willing to learn and has an interest in robotics essentially is what we're looking for,” Dominic Mazza, a SOAR member said. “We don't really care if you've never touched any computer programming environment, if you've never really been interested in autonomous vehicles before. We're just looking to provide a space for people to learn and grow their experience in the field and share our passion about it.”

Sparticipation brought in over 16,000 students this year, with every club hoping that they would be the lucky ones to collect the most signatures. No matter the outcome-- it is certain that many students found organizations where they can feel that they belong.

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