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David Fatheree has been a diehard member of Northeastern TV, the university’s video production club, since his freshman year.
The fourth-year computer engineering student found a love for cameras and film while in high school shooting ads for local television stations, so it was a no-brainer when he was deciding what club he wanted to join his first year.
Now as president of Northeastern TV, he’s made it his mandate to help train the next team of filmmakers who will go on to run the club in the years to come.
“Our goal is to get members using equipment and making videos,” Fatheree said Monday afternoon at the Curry Student Center on Northeastern’s Boston campus. “We’ve got all the cameras you need, any lighting equipment you need to make videos.”
Fatheree was one of dozens of student leaders promoting their clubs during the Center for Student Involvement’s annual Winter Involvement Fair. Hundreds of students converged on the student center on the first day of the spring semester to learn more about the countless student clubs at the university.
The clubs promoting themselves during the event were a varied mix and catered to a range of interests, from video game development and music production to theater and dance.
In the early days of the pandemic, Jamie Pan picked up sewing to help her pass the time.
When she came to Northeastern, she decided to start her own sewing club because she wanted to build a community and help new sewers learn the ropes.
And It looks like the interest is there.
The sewing club is less than a year old but already has 30 members.
But you don’t have to be an expert by any means to join, Pan, a third-year computer science and economics major, stresses.
“Whether you’ve never touched a needle or you’ve been working with machines for a really long time, this is the place to go,” she says.
The club puts on a variety of workshops to help members improve their embroidery and patchwork skills.
“I wanted to start this club because I know sometimes sewing can be confusing. I really wanted to create a community of sewers,” she says.
For those who want to get a workout and have fun doing it, there’s KADA, the university’s K-pop dance team.
Since 2019, the club has been doing dance covers of some of the most popular Korean boy and girl band groups, including BTS, PIXY and ITZY.
Workshops are held in the Curry Ballroom, and individuals of all skill levels are invited to join.
This year, the group is expanding its online presence and posting video packages to its YouTube page. It also posts on Instagram and TikTok, says Izzy Chevalier, a second-year media and screen studies student.
“Sometimes people who like K-pop are kind of closeted,” Chevalier says. “But at KADA, we are all super interested in K-pop and it’s a really great way to make friends since we all share that interest.”
As a business administration major with a concentration in marketing, freshman Michael Kim was impressed by the visual branding of the Live Music Association club, which puts on live events on campus.
During the event, the club was handing out stylized posters promoting some of its past and upcoming events, which included drag shows, open mic nights, DJ nights and more.
One poster promoting a One Direction event was created in the style of a Tiger Beat teen magazine.
“I pay attention to marketing tactics and I thought it was really cool. I’m really excited to join that club,” he says.
Northeastern’s Game Studio Club was formed to help students create their own video games.
Several times throughout the semester the group hosts game jam events in which students are invited to come in and learn how to use development tools to create simple games in a short amount of time.
“We tend to have a good mix of people who bring some type of skill with them, whether they’re an artist or a programmer,” says Marco Hampel, a fourth-year computer science student and co-founder of the club.
“If they have absolutely no experience, they can pick things up and work with artists to figure out what tools to work with,” he says.
Students new to coding can also take tutorials during the meetings to learn more about game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, he says.
The club was established two years ago and has produced roughly 20 games that can be accessed on its website.
Hampel himself is in the process of creating a third-person shooting game about an astronaut who has to explore an unknown world after his ship gets damaged.
“What we’re trying to do is have students learn off each other and make fun stuff,” he says. “They make for great portfolio pieces for students.”