Discover the clubs of SMC with Club Row
Lucas Weiss, Marcela Iraheta & Maria Lebedev | Staff Writers
An event that provides SMC students to learn all about extracurricular opportunities.
Once a semester, Santa Monica College (SMC) hosts Club Row, an event focused on helping students discover many extracurricular activities that the school offers. On Tuesday, Oct. 31, most of SMC’s clubs lined up in the SMC quad and set up their reserved tables for viewing, many of them with little Halloween treats for potential new members. This year, there were many returning clubs, as well as a few new ones, such as the Business in Sports Club, the Oaxacan Club, and the E-Sports Club.
SMC provides a number of opportunities for its students to get involved in activities outside of their classes. The clubs teach skills that the members can use to advance their academic careers, as well as their occupations.
The International Students Club decorated their table with a large cardboard frame. When asked about the focus of the club, vice president Turat Zheksheev said that it was to bring people together “from all over the world and expose them to different cultures.” He added, “There’s a lot of international students at SMC and I think the club plays a very big role for the college and the students because of that.”
The Rotaract Club focuses on business and sets its members up to learn from professionals about topics such as networking. President Doris Huang said, “Our focus is to prepare our members for the world of business. We invite various businessmen to be our guest speakers and share their experiences in the numerous fields they work in. We also teach soft skills like communication, networking, and public speaking.”
MedDent Society provides SMC students who later want to attend medical or dental school with all the necessary information they would need after they receive their Associate degree. “We help our members figure out which industry would be a better fit for them, and teach them everything they’d need to know about job applications. Sometime in the near future we hope to provide CPR classes,” said president Rojin Shahabi.
The Pre-Health Professional Association is another club for students who are interested in a career in medicine. “This club is for anyone who is interested in the healthcare industry. We try to provide our members with any information or experiences that would be useful for them in the medical field,” said president Wendy Solis.
The newly created Oaxacan Club recently hosted the Guelaguetza event for the first time at SMC.The festivity celebrated the Oaxacan culture’s tradition of selfless gift-giving. “Our club is to unite young Oaxacans, let them know that there is an Oaxacan community at SMC, and help them reconnect to their roots. We have workshops, cultural projects, field trips, and Oaxacan speakers who pursued higher education,” explained Stefani Hernandez.
This is also the first semester for E-Sports as an active club. E-Sports members engage in activities such as Valorant, Rocket League, and League of Legends. Their Valorant and League of Legends teams are currently looking to compete in their first tournament. The teams have played against the University of California Santa Barbara, San Francisco State University, and San Jose State University. “Everybody is welcome. We do have beginning and professional teams,” said club member Joshua Gomez. The club meets every Wednesday at the Center for Media and Design at 1:00 p.m.
The Anthropology Club at SMC had gone through a brief hiatus during the pandemic. The current President Maria Manna was interested in Anthropology and went on a search for a club at SMC. She found out the club was discontinued and reached out to the previous advisor and was told to find six people to restart the club. The Anthropology Club officially relaunched at SMC in the fall of 2023. They have SMC alumni who are Anthropology majors as guest speakers. They meet at Dresher Hall on Tuesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
To find more information about the clubs at SMC this year, visit SMC’s club page.
