Occupy Eddie's (or, the Fordham club fair)

If you have visited Fordham before, you most likely walked by Eddie's, the sprawling grassy lawn that lies at the heart of Fordham's Rose Hill campus. Maybe you visited on a sunny day at the beginning of the semester and saw Fordham students sunbathing on brightly-colored towels or tossing around a Frisbee. Or perhaps you chose to come to Fordham in October, when the trees on campus had taken on their jeweled ruby and gold hues. This close to midterms, the students on Eddie's were a bit more quiet, choosing instead to read or flip through flashcards.

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However, one day each year, Eddie's Parade becomes the last place students want to go to relax: This Thursday, August 29, was Fordham's annual club fair. Eddie's was packed with tables, hand-drawn posters, and enthusiastic student representatives from each of Fordham's 90+ clubs. In between their classes, hundreds of Fordham students wove their way through the crowd, signing up to receive emails from any clubs that piqued their interest. As a freshman, this is a great way to meet people and make new, life-long friends. My freshman year, I signed up for as many clubs as I could. Although I ended up committing to only a few -- Rose Hill Society (campus tour guides) and Fordham's The Ram newspaper -- I still receive emails from the Ballroom Dancing Club and The Ampersand, Fordham's literary magazine.

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Fordham Flava, Fordham's highly-popular hip-hop dance group, performed in the street just outside of Eddie's, much to the chagrin of Fordham Security. Flava always draws a large crowd to its performances; check out this YouTube video of a performance they did in the Caf!

I also visited a friend at the Campus Activities Board (CAB) table, where they were giving out free sunglass and ice cream sandwiches! CAB puts on hundreds of events for Fordham students over the course of the academic year. For example,  a few upcoming CAB events are: a screening of The Great Gatsby, an apple picking trip, and a Broadway ticket raffle.

The Rose Hill Society (RHS) was my ultimate destination on club fair day. As an executive board member, I was helping to recruit Fordham students interested in giving tours to perspective students or blogging about their Fordham experience. We were also giving away free candy, which might help explain why we filled sheet after sheet of paper with students' emails!

Should you decide to come to Fordham, you can rest assured knowing that one of its 90+ clubs will interest you...and if your true passion lies in something for which there is no club or student organization, forming a new club is a piece of cake! Simply write a proposal and find 15 other students who share the same passion you do!

For a full list of the clubs that Fordham has to offer, click here.