An African Student Association and an improv club will start on campus this semester.
These clubs will join the college’s approximately 30 existing student organizations.
“I was able to join a lot of student-led organizations last year [but] I still kind of felt a little bit isolated,” second-year engineering student Rabiyatou Bah, who co-founded the African Student Association, said. “So just being around people I can relate to more often would, I guess, help my overall experience at AACC be a lot more personable.”
Bah, who also serves as executive vice president of the Student Government Association, said she hopes the African Student Association will create a community for Black and immigrant students to share their cultures and plan events.
Co-founder Alfred Emmanuel agreed.
“The purpose of the club is to help out immigrants and African Americans and provide a safe space for them and help them just have fun,” Emmanuel, a second-year engineering student, said.
Antione Tomlin, the club’s faculty adviser, said when he heard about the new organization, he “had to be a part of it.”
“I remember [clubs] being a place for me to feel like I belonged,” Tomlin, the director of the Academic Literacies Lab, said. “To meet other people who looked like me, who had similar interests and to be able to bond with people from similar backgrounds and cultures.”
The founders of the improv club, called Overcast Troupers, said they plan for students to have a good time while learning and performing.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of just improvised scenes and stories with, like, improv games and things during club meetings,” second-year film studies student Jason Kalshoven, the club’s co-president, said. “And we’re also going to put on shows and stuff.”
Co-President Éva Parry said an improv club could help students who struggle with public speaking.
“I knew a lot of people who joined [high school improv] and it helped them with public speaking or it helped them with anxiety or it helped them with just things like that,” Parry, a second-year transfer studies student, said.
Kalshoven said AACC was “long overdue” for an improv club.
“It’ll give [AACC] a club based around humor and comedy,” Kalshoven said, “which I don’t really think we have.”