Clubs play an important role at Bellevue College for both the campus and the student. Clubs give students a chance to network, make friends, and develop skills through experiences that might be missing in the classroom. Club activities can even be put on a resume to give an extra-curricular edge over other applicants.
Clubs chartered through Bellevue College can also apply for travel funds and other club expenses so personal budget needn’t be a concern for all members. However, even with all the backing and funding in the world, the most important factor in any club is the students who bring it to life. With all the great things that clubs offer, Bellevue College does everything it can to help its students find or create the right club for themselves.
There are multiple resources that BC students may use to find a club. Several clubs will hang fliers on the event boards around campus with information about meeting times and how to join. If a club doesn’t advertise through fliers, the “Student Programs” page on the Bellevue College website puts all the resources for finding or creating a club at any student’s fingertips.
The first step to starting a prospective club is finding out if there is already a relevant club active on campus. If a club has an active membership, it can be found on the “Chartered Clubs” page. Each chartered club should contain contact information for both the student leader and faculty advisor of that club. Joining most chartered clubs is as simple as showing up!
If a student cannot find something to match their interests in the active chartered clubs, there is another page to visit called “Unchartered Student Clubs.” There are a variety of clubs on this page, from Feminism to Flash Mobs and Table Tennis to Ramen that Bellevue College has already granted a charter to in the past. A chartered club might become inactive for a variety of reasons, such as losing members at graduation or leadership forgetting to re-apply for charter status in the new school year. All is not lost if a club becomes inactive though. This page will have the last known contacts of club leadership and advisors and a simple email to the right person might get the club back on track to chartered status.
If a club has been inactive for an extended period of time or doesn’t exist yet, a dedicated group of only five people can breathe life into any club and receive chartered status. The “Charter a Club” page is the destination for any student who wants to do so. The page has links to contact faculty members about specific charter application questions and, most importantly, the club charter application is built directly into the page! Once a group meets the requirements, application is as simple as following the steps on the page itself. There is even a save option if the application cannot be finished all at once for any reason.
Club membership is a traditional part of any college experience. Bellevue College supports its clubs wholeheartedly and encourages any and all students who want to become a part of that tradition. We hope you take this new school year as an opportunity to grow outside of the classroom, and find a club that is the right fit for you!