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<\/a>PIcture by Olivia Pawlowski.<\/p><\/div>\n
From August 25 to September 6, the campus celebrated its longstanding Welcome Week tradition to usher in the start of a new academic school year. Coordinated by the Undergraduate Student Government, the week-long event offered students a chance to ease into a new semester. The celebration included picnics, ice cream socials and club fairs.<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s annual club fair drew large crowds to the main cafeteria on the third floor of its West Building, which normally seats up to 250 people. Students and staff either gathered to learn more about its various clubs and organizations or they participated in the event by promoting and representing different clubs on campus. Douglas Paillere, an advisor within the Office of Diversity and Compliance, represented the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a nationwide campus ministry focusing on community building, service projects and bible study. The organization wants to \u201ccreate a safe environment\u201d where students can build partnerships and give back to their communities, said Paillere.<\/p>\n
Established in 1941 with the formation of its first chapter in the United States, it now has 1,011 chapters, can be found across 667 college campuses, and has over 40,000 members, according to the organization\u2019s 2015-2016 annual report found on its website. Hunter\u2019s chapter was chartered in the fall of 2014.<\/a> Sporting a bright blue InterVarsity shirt and khaki pants, Paillere handed out fliers, hoping to spark student interest and amass signatures for the organization\u2019s signup sheet. \u201cOur goal is to reach 1500 in five weeks,\u201d said Paillere. The organization used candy strategically placed next to the sheet in order to entice students to visit its table.<\/p>\n As Paillere engaged students on one side of the cafeteria, Mike Mazzeo, 22, did the same on another. Mazzeo, a senior living in Brooklyn and majoring in biochemistry and minoring in human rights, spent his time at the club fair recruiting students for the Peer Health Exchange, a nationwide organization whose mission is health education.<\/a> Founded in 2004 in New York City, students who join are trained to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in low-income high schools, with a particular focus on educating incoming freshmen. As one of its college partners, Hunter\u2019s chapter has been recruiting students since 2014.<\/p>\n Mazzeo, whose passion for community service and health education began with a medical service trip to Nicaragua in August 2015, strives to \u201cpush for education equity and improve health,\u201d he said. In Nicaragua, Mazzeo engaged local residents to provide \u201cmuch-needed medical care to an impoverished community\u201d in the form of discussions about public health, sanitation, and medicine, he added. Mazzeo joined Hunter\u2019s chapter shortly after his trip, becoming its director of Spanish education for the next six months. Upon joining, he was given a dark grey shirt branded with the organization\u2019s bright orange logo, which he paired with jeans as he handed out fliers at the club fair. \u201cI recognized the value of education in medicine, and how knowledge is used to empower individuals,\u201d said Mazzeo of his trip.<\/p>\n Picture by Olivia Pawlowski.<\/p><\/div>\n Hunter is a commuter school<\/a> and events such as the club fair can give students like Mazzeo a sense of \u201ccommunity,\u201d he said. The main campus at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue is comprised of three towering buildings that are connected by sky ways, making it easier for students, faculty, staff and visitors to move between the North, West and East buildings. With 16,550 undergraduate students enrolled as of 2015, according to statistics taken from the college\u2019s website<\/a>, 61 percent of those students are state residents. The campus is often bustling with students making their way quickly in and out.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Reyes, 22, a transfer student from Long Island, echoed Mazzeo\u2019s sentiment. \u201cAt Hunter, I feel like I have a place, like I have somewhere I belong, with people who want to make a change in the world,\u201d said Reyes, a senior majoring in history and double minoring in psychology and public policy. While Reyes said he has always been interested in politics, his beliefs in political radicalism can be traced back to the 2016 Presidential Election.<\/a> He said he has found a place on campus among fellow student activists. While handing out fliers for his club, the Student Empowerment Project, he sported black jeans and a bright yellow T-shirt from a recent march with the Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision<\/a>, formed in 2014 in reaction to the city\u2019s plans to rezone a local neighborhood in the Bronx.<\/p>\n The Student Empowerment Project, as described on its official Facebook page,<\/a>\u00a0 is an \u201corganization dedicated to combating all forms of oppression, especially those that affect students in the Hunter College!\u201d The club, which originally formed last semester at Queens College, established its own presence in the Hunter community this summer, with an agenda adapted to the interests and needs of students at Hunter. Currently on its agenda? Reform of the College Association Board.<\/p>\n The board<\/a> oversees the use of student fees which are dispersed by Undergraduate Student Government.<\/a> It is comprised of six students, four administrators, and three faculty members but it, Reyes insisted, does not represent the student body. Reyes\u2019 organization\u2019s goal is to increase the number of students represented on the board, for whom budgeting can either help or hinder the efforts of their various clubs and organizations. Their current campaign against the board advocates for participatory budgeting, so that only students and college staff \u201ccan be the ones to vote and decide where their money goes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe may have to rely on direct student actions,\u201d said Reyes. In a social and political climate resonating with uncertainty such as Trump\u2019s recent call to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Reyes said he looked forward to his last year at Hunter. \u201cThis semester has been pretty promising,\u201d said Reyes. \u201cFor every one person that is apathetic or against activism, there are at least five that want to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Monet Hicks, 19, a transfer student, attended the Welcome Week club fair to find a niche. Originally hoping to join a Korean pop music club, stemming from her desire to direct music videos like those of its genre, her love of Vice magazine caused her to bee line to Cult. Magazine, a student-run publication dedicated to culture and showcasing the talents of its diverse membership, whether it be writing, photography or fashion.<\/p>\n Although Hicks, a sophomore, is new to the community, having spent her freshman year at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, she said she planned to take advantage of all that Hunter has to offer. Including tuition, fees, and room and board, expenses at her former college were just over $44,000, according to data listed on the college\u2019s website. The mounting tuition resulting from the school\u2019s debt caused Hicks to transfer, a decision she said she was happy with as she commutes easily to Hunter from her home in Fresh Meadows, Queens.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m getting a good education,\u201d said Hicks, wearing a backpack and purple sweater as she exited the club fair, hugging fliers and magazines to her chest. \u201cI like Hunter way better.\u201d Currently undeclared but excited to explore her interests in media studies, she said she looked forward to dabbling in music and theater classes in the future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Olivia Pawlowski can be reached at olivia.pawlowski75@myhunter.cuny.edu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Article by Olivia Pawlowski<\/a>WORD Classifieds<\/a><\/h2>\n
\nFrom August 25 to September 6, the campus celebrated its longstanding Welcome Week tradition to usher in the start of a new academic school year. Coordinated by the Undergraduate Student Government, the week-long event offered students a chance to ease into a new semester.<\/p>\n