With a wide variety of clubs at California Lutheran University, students are provided with many opportunities to be involved on campus. These clubs include three new additions: Seeds for Haiti, Techie Club and College Republicans.

With less than twenty members, Seeds for Haiti is looking to gather volunteers who club president and junior Ryan Glatt said will help “create awareness about world problems, not just Haiti, using several impoverished villages as case studies.”

“We partner with the SEED (Students for Enlightenment and the Education of Sustainability) Project and other clubs to bring individuals together to field test and brainstorm solutions to these world problems,” Glatt said.

Glatt said that this was not the only goal of the club.

“I want to not only help parts of the world in dire need, but my main mission with this club is guide people in understanding they can change the world,” Glatt said.

The key is to find people who are willing to grow and become leaders. Furthermore, he added that students should join the club “to find how their own passions can create a better world, and to find new ones.”

“It allows students to learn a bit more about altruism and sustainability when it relates to global giving. Sustainability should be an important factor when deciding to help others,” senior club member Berlin Galvan said.

There is no set time and place that the club meets  weekly. Glatt said that they “meet at various times, depending on the needs and agenda of the club”, but he also collaborates with members individually.

Techie Club has also become a new addition to campus. Composed of students majoring in various concentrations, Techie Club is focused on students who have some form of interest in technical theater.

“The term ‘techie’ refers to anyone who does behind the scenes work for a production. Our club is meant to educate and inspire students who have an interest in stage management, costumes, lights, set, sound, stage makeup and so much more,” Techie Club president Kaylin Mendoza said.

Techie Club is focused on helping students learn important aspects of technical theater through a series of workshops.

“We want to foster creativity in our students and expose them to all the great things that technical theatre accomplishes. We also want to provide them with the resources to learn these skills,” Mendoza said.

The club will provide students with materials to become more comfortable in the technical theater scene.

“We will be setting up workshops guided by experienced designers and technicians for our students. Being so close to Los Angeles, we can take our students to see technically advanced shows so they can experience it on a professional level,” Mendoza said.

Not only does it help students with their majors, but the club “provides a channel of communication and involvement between non-majors and the theater department”, said sophomore secretary Angie Zamora.

The group meets on alternating Mondays from 6-7 p.m. in the Theatre Arts building. The first official meeting was Oct. 28th.

The College Republicans has been renewed for the 2013-2014 school year. The club strives to “uphold an open discussion on the future of the Republican Party and what it truly means to identify as Republican in an academic setting,” according to CLU’s website.

“We seek to have an open discussion on the future of the Republican Party and seek to secure the welfare of the party in Ventura County, Calif. and on a federal level,” said College Republicans president Brandon White.

According to the CLU website, with important decisions being made in the government lately, the College Republicans club “[promotes] conservative ideals as in accordance with the GOP, but are inclusive to all who are interested in discussing Republican politics.”

Aside from discussing politics, the club also includes what the CLU website describes as “volunteer work in our local community, issue advocacy, and other activities deemed relevant by the members of the organization.”

Although the club is named “College Republicans,” White said, “We are not limited to Republicans only, but we will be doing work for local republican campaigns”.

The first meeting of the College Republicans will be Wednesday, Oct. 30th at 7 p.m.

Janella Caravetta
Staff Writer
Published Oct. 30, 2013