Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Springticipation brings MSU students face-to-face with over 200 student organizations

January 19, 2024
<p>Michigan State students brave the cold for the Springticipation event at the STEM Building on Jan. 18, 2024. Springticipation extended across multiple parts of the STEM Building, giving students seemingly endless opportunities to explore.</p>

Michigan State students brave the cold for the Springticipation event at the STEM Building on Jan. 18, 2024. Springticipation extended across multiple parts of the STEM Building, giving students seemingly endless opportunities to explore.

Over 200 registered student organizations, or RSOs, gathered at the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility Thursday to advertise and showcase their respective organizations at MSU’s annual Springticipation.

A smaller-scale version of the fall semester’s Sparticipation, Springticipation featured a wide variety of social, professional and cultural RSOs for students to discover and sign up for. 

Computer science freshman Himanshu Kuchekar said he came to Springticipation in search of a club to jumpstart his professional career. Despite going to Sparticipation in the fall, Kuchekar said, he felt motivated to attend Tuesday in case he missed an RSO worth joining the first time around.

“Being a freshman, it’s really important to network and be a part of many clubs and be connected to the university,” Kuchekar said. “This event is perfect because it connects students to on-campus opportunities.”

For students representing their RSOs, Springticipation’s packed rooms meant countless opportunities to hand out flyers, catch students’ attention and get prospective members added to mailing lists.

For the fledgling Soil Judging club, which was founded this year and has revived MSU’s soil judging team from a half-century of dormancy, attracting new members is essential for the club’s longevity, bio systems engineering junior and club vice president Ben Bridge said.

“It’s honestly for everyone,” Bridge said. “We’ll take agronomy people, we’ll take forestry people, we’ll take engineers, literally anyone ... even people in health. I mean, it all relates.”

Other social clubs, such as the MSU Weezer club, hoped to attract new members with the promise of new friends and lifelong connections. The club has been so conducive to social interactions, in fact, that two current members who met through the club are now engaged, computer science senior and club president Krish Magal said. 

“(Weezer club) is like my baby,” Magal, who has been with the club since its inception three years ago, said. “I think it’s really great that a lot of people regularly come to the club and that we’re now good friends because of it.”

Springticipation cultural engagement showcase

While people continued to fill the STEM building’s second and third floors, students interested in the Springticipation cultural engagement showcase on the first floor were treated to various musical, dance and poetry performances

Graduate student and 2024 MLK Commemorative Student Committee co-chair Jakaira Lynn said the event, which is a part of this week’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration, would hopefully inspire unity and authenticity for performers and audiences alike. 

“(It’s important) to be able to ring with our natural presence and just be able to express ourselves naturally, whether that’s through art, or through the events we have,” Lynn said.

Journalism senior Jauwan Ward, who performed his song “Selfish Ways,” at the event, said that after performing last year, coming back for this year’s Springticipation was a no-brainer.

“It’s so great,” Ward said about being able to perform in front of fellow students. “Especially at Michigan State because it’s been my dream school. It feels good just to do something I love in front of everyone that loves my music.”

Alongside individual acts, groups such as Daebak Spartans, a dance and social club for students interested in K-pop, also performed. Genetics sophomore and Daebak Spartans member Lucee Wilson said performing as a group allows the club to share the music they’re interested in and connect with others.

“We’re getting to share this interest that a lot of us like really, really love,” Wilson said. “And people usually come up to us after and they compliment us and it means a lot to us, you know, none of us were dancers before.”

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