With over 400 clubs, organizations, student departments, local businesses and nonprofits in attendance, Campus Life Night is the largest gathering of all the organizations on Grand Valley State University’s campus.

Campus Life Night occurs twice a school year, once in the fall and then again to kick off the winter semester. The event is held to help students find the club or organization that’s right for them.

For the winter semester the event was held on Jan. 13 in the Fieldhouse arena. Hundreds of tables lined the entirety of the gym with GVSU students squeezing by one another to make their way from one table to the next. Each organization or business had something different to offer. 

Campus Life Night allows students to see some of the smaller, more niche groups on campus that may not be talked about as much like Quad ball, a smaller sports organization.

“This is quad ball, kind of based on the sport quidditch from the Harry Potter books,” said longtime member of the quad ball team Kathy Johnson. “It’s like basketball and dodgeball together. We have all different shapes and sizes in our club and we’re all family.”

Campus Life Night also offers many organizations specific to various majors and identities, one of which is the National Society for Black Engineers. 

“We’re not just black engineers, it’s for STEM majors in general or business majors,” said National Society of Black Engineers member Leah Thomason. “We are like a mentor for each other and help with classes.”

Organizations like this one can help with networking and professionalism as well create connections between colleges in the university. 

“We also love regional conferences,” said Secretary of the National Society of Black Engineers Ariana Corbin. “We just had our last one in Indianapolis back in November, and we did a lot of networking with different companies and just meeting other people.”

Students were able to participate in many different spin-the-wheel games of different organizations, earn prizes and participate in various activities. For example, the US Army was there speaking with students and held a push-up contest, another hands-on activity was offered by the rowing team which gave students the ability to try rowing, without being on the water.

“I was looking forward to getting introduced to all the clubs at Grand Valley so I can get involved and meet people who relate to me here,” said sophomore Taryn Williams. 

Even for students who aren’t sure of the career path they would like to take or need help being successful in the classroom, GVSU resources like the Student Academic Success Center were available to discuss what the university offers at all times of the year. 

“Around midterms, we’ll talk about preparing for midterms, after spring break we talk about motivation because everyone’s just ready to be done with the semester and things like that,” said Student Success Coach Gabe Pena.

Students are welcome to join clubs throughout the year by attending their events or emailing club presidents. Campus Life Night will take place once again at the start of the fall 2023 semester.