With clubs’ week long gone, many students are looking for fun and exciting campus organizations to join. Whether that may be a cultural club, hobby-based clubs, or even program-based clubs, they all provide the opportunity for socialization and enjoyment.

Cultural clubs bring together people of similar ethnocultural backgrounds. Hobby-based clubs thrive on the fact that every member shares a passion for that specific hobby. However, it is often hard to discern what exactly science clubs or pre-society organizations do. They often get misinterpreted as “resume-boosters” or academic clubs, solely meant for scholastic elevation.

These characterizations undermine the role these clubs play on campus. Science clubs such as the ChemClub play an important part in engaging and providing support for students in their department.

“[Science clubs] are really important for students in general because they get to know other people who are like-minded and studying the same thing as them,” says Evie Kapur, President of the ChemClub and 4th year student doing Honours specialization in Chemistry. “It also takes it one step further with science [students] because a lot of the students in science are first of all, studying the same topics and second of all, are put with the same kind of course load. So, we’re all in the same boat, in that we understand the different schedules and can provide homework help.”

The ChemClub hosts a myriad of events throughout the year, all with the intent of providing socialization opportunities for students.

“It is also a great way to meet people in your program. Everyone becomes friends with everyone. It’s more of a social aspect to our degree,” Kapur assures.

Activities such as “Back in my day,” an informal seminar where professors can provide insight to attendees about their undergraduate experience, or the annual intramural team in which chemistry club members can form recreational or competitive teams for a variety of sports.

Apart from the widely beneficial social aspect of science clubs, they also have the added benefit of being able to provide academic aid to its members.

For instance, the ChemClub often partners up with the instructors of the first-year chemistry courses—Chem 1301 and 1302—to provide helpful resources for first-year students in those courses. They even allocate assistance for upper years who still require help with chemistry.

“We do review sessions for first years for all of our midterms and sometimes finals; it just depends on what the scheduling is like,” explains Kapur.

The assistance that science clubs provide both academically and socially to their respective departments is unmatched. Clubs such as the ChemClub, Biology Undergraduate Society, Physics and Astronomy Student Association and countless others, are some of the many examples of science clubs that extend far beyond their characterization as a “science club.”

These clubs do not simply comprise of students who share a love for a certain subject. Instead, they serve as a venue for the creation of new friendships and a new appreciation for the subject at hand.