Biology Club returns to campus, aims to find wildlife niche
Years after it phased out because of lack of student leadership, USD’s Biology Club is back, and working to find its niche on campus.
With about 30 regular members, the new organization is working on member recruitment, event planning and community outreach.
Club President Kalie Leonard started the organization last semester as a way to get more involved with her major without a medical emphasis.
“I didn’t really find another club that I was interested in, so I thought starting my own would be a good idea,” the sophomore said. “It definitely has a bunch of my interests because I basically created it.”
While last semester focused more on planning and recruitment, the club’s agenda this year will concentrate on hosting speakers, trips and community outreach on various science topics.
Associate professor Jake Kerby said the old Biology Club phased out largely because of the creation of other, more specialized student organizations such as the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and the Sustainability Club.
When Leonard approached him with the idea of the club last spring semester, he said they planned out what purpose the new club would serve, without repeating what other organizations were already doing.
“Basically, it felt like there was a hole there in between those two,” Kerby said. “I mean biology is a broad ranging field, so the club is meant to be fairly inclusive.”
Kerby said while AMSA focuses on preparing students to become doctors and the Sustainability Club works on solutions to encourage people to be more eco-friendly, the Biology Club will focus its attention mostly on nature.
“Our focus is probably more focused on wildlife and conservation,” he said.
Kerby said the broad scope of biology will allow the club to cover a lot of different topics, as well as possibly work in conjunction with other like-minded student organizations.
Sophomore Jessica Romero, the club’s vice president, said a lot of what the club hopes to do will be the “fun part” of science, like learning about animals and nature.
One program held Sept. 9 allowed a few club members to teach Vucurevich preschoolers about reptiles and amphibians in an artificial stream, which is the start of several community outreach projects Leonard and Romero want to do this year.
Additionally, the Biology Club is working to become SGA funded. In the meantime, they’ll likely sponsor events with little cost or fundraise money for those that do have costs, Leonard said.
Although the club is inclusive, Romero said it may be more of interest to biology majors who aren’t planning to pursue a medical degree.
“It still has medical aspects, so it’s for all biology majors or anybody interested in biology,” she said. “So it’s just a great way to get more involved.”
(Photo: Graduate student Brianna Henry, along with members of USD’s new biology club, teach Vuverivic preschoolers about reptiles and amphibians in artificial streams on Sept. 9 as part of an outreach program. Submitted Photo / The Volante)
