2021 Club Rush at Utah Valley University
Student participation at Club Rush at UVU
Members of the UIMF, Foreign Affairs and Rotaract clubs participated at Club Rush at UVU
UVU held their annual Club Rush September 14 - 15, 2021. It was held outside due to Covid-19, which was a warm experience. While we all got a little sunburned, it was still an exciting experience. I loved meeting people who were already members of Foreign Affairs. Lisa Cannon, Matthew Drachman and Camilla Pendleton were beyond helpful and really helped to promote our message.
Throughout the 8 hours, I was able to talk to many people. I learned their dreams and goals. It reaffirmed my belief that we are all in this world together, working towards the same end goal. We received over 160 sign-ups over the two days. I believe this is because our message and motto is something others want to be a part of too. Our message is:
“Foreign Affairs is anything that deals between two different countries: Business, sustainable development, politics, etc. We are a part of a coalition of student clubs, called UIMF, with the goal to work together to make the world better, especially for those, like us, who live in the mountains. Mountain people are strong and resilient and our regions are vital to the world in terms of clean water, climate change and growth.
We all want our dream job and we all want to be able to afford our dreams. Foreign affairs under UIMF asks what your dream is. We know everyone, no matter your age or degree, has certain experiences. We then take those dreams and experiences then specialize our projects to them. It works for both of us. It helps our members get the experience they need to fill their portfolio, but it also makes our service projects and conferences better. I know nothing about web design or advertising, but I know people who do. I appoint business majors over logistics, psychology majors over research, digital media over advertisement and political science over policy. By combining our experiences together, our dreams together, our message will stretch further and make a difference in an angry world.”
I truly believe this. No matter the age you are, whether you are a student, teacher, or doctorate candidate, we have a voice full of different experiences. These voices should be heard. If every voice is heard, if the world leaders could take all these different experiences and work with them, nothing would be impossible. Our world is more interconnected than we think. This message is my goal with Foreign Affairs this year. Non-traditional students, the youth, women, and the people in the mountain are incredibly strong and tend to be downplayed in the world arena. I want to help their voices be heard. I want to help reunite an angry and hurt world so we can solve these worldwide issues like poverty, climate change, sustainable development, conflict, human rights, etc. However, it has to be done together.
I hope this year the Foreign Affairs club under UIMF can unite our college, with other colleges, domestic and international, to help show the world the importance of the voices of the youth, the people of the mountains and all of us in the world who want a future of hope. It started with Club Rush but that is only the beginning.
Alitha Thompson, President, Foreign Affairs club
STUDENT REFLECTIVE ESSAYS