Try New Things is a new club on campus that encourages students to get out of their comfort zones and find new hobbies.
Grace Boak, ’20, and Christina d’Ecclesiis, ’20, co-founders of the club, thought of the idea last spring.
“Last year, we had this hallway in our apartment where we would post sticky notes about random ideas we had,” d’Ecclesiis said.
Then, the idea to start the club came from a project d’Ecclesiis worked on as a TRAC fellow. She realized that there were so many people on campus with diverse skills, which really inspired her.
D’Ecclesiis said the club is meant to get people out of their routines, and the overall goal of the club is to give people an easier way to find new activities on campus.
“We were trying to make it as easy as possible for people, myself included,” Boak said. “We are all lazy. The club has definitely evolved from trying new hobbies, to moving toward on-campus and off-campus inclusion, like community engagement.”
The club’s email list is approximately 200 people, but the club is completely non-committal, Boak said. Students come to the events at their convenience, without any required meetings.
Its most recent event was at Campus Pizza, where the employees brought people into the kitchen and taught them how to make pizza dough.
Boak and d’Ecclesiis agreed that the owners of Campus Pizza loved having people there. D’Ecclesiis said she heard someone say to one of the owners, “I’ve never heard of that on the menu before.”
Boak said that involving places around campus is not only helpful for students, but businesses as well.
“Events like these are important to take part in because they expose you to things you’ve never been exposed to before, which can awaken any hidden passion you might have,” said Siobhan Mariquit, ’20, who has attended several of the club’s events.
Boak and d’Ecclesiis have several upcoming events planned.
They are partnering with the photography club for an upcoming light painting event, where students use manual cameras and create long exposure shots of glow sticks or other lights, to create a bright fluorescent design. Additionally, they are planning a DJing event, where they hope to have someone teach students how to DJ.
“All of our events are super relaxed. Just come and have a good time,” Boak and d’Ecclesiis said.
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