Palo Alto College allows students to express their interests, goals and beliefs through student organizations.
The 20 organizations range from sports to community service, and all of them are looking for students who want to make a difference and enhance their college experience.
Other organizations raise students’ awareness. The Arcus Society provides resources to educate our college community on gay, lesbian and bisexual issues in order to create a more positive environment for the entire student body. Club Earth’s purpose is to make us mindful of the environment and teach us how to preserve it.
The International Club promotes unity among the many cultures and ethnicities of Palo Alto College.
Four organizations are dedicated to leadership and helping other students.
The Student Senate is the official “voice” of all students, and students’ concerns and opinions can be expressed through this organization.
Peer Tutors promote student success by offering academic assistance. The immediate goal of this group is to change its name.
“It is misleading,” said Diane Lerma, the Peer Tutors’ adviser. “Students think they must tutor other students in order to join. Actually, there is no tutoring involved.”
The members of this organization believe in intellectual development, student empowerment and community service. The Peer Tutors plan to volunteer at the Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner. They are also planning to help with either Elf Louise or the Angel Tree.
This group meets the last Thursday of every month at 2 p.m. in Room 102 in the Applied Sciences building.
PACFriends is an organization that promotes confidence by facilitating academic success as well as leadership skills. Their goals for the Fall semester are to recruit new members, send officers to a leadership conference, participate in PAChanga, sponsor the Halloween Costume Contest and the Share the Warmth Project, participate in the Little Palomino Tree, and have an end-of-semester party.
“For the Share the Warmth Project, we collect gently used blankets and jackets and donate them to Palo Alto Students might need them,” said PACFriends adviser Janet Rangel.
In the Spring, the group sponsors an Easter Egg Hunt for 150 elementary school kids. Their meetings are the second and fourth Fridays of the month at 2 p.m. in Room 138 of the General Education Building.
Finally, Phi Theta Kappa (Alpha Pi Lota), an academic excellence organization, provides service and leadership through a variety of activities.
There are three organizations that are directly related to certain majors, yet students do not have to pursue that major to be a member.
The Palo Alto College Education Club, or Club Ed, gives students interested in the education field opportunities in their major.
The Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society (Kappa Zeta Chapter) is dedicated to improving the appreciation of biological study. Its goal is to expose members to a wide diversity of biological disciplines through field trips, lectures, internships, academic meetings and regional and national conferences.
“We are a unique organization in that we are the only community college in the State of Texas and the second community college in the nation to be admitted to the national organization,” said Brad Chandler, Tri-Beta adviser. “Tri-Beta at PAC offers a truly rare opportunity to join an international academic honor society at the community college level.”
The Veterinary Technician Association is primarily for students pursuing that major. The group is dedicated to providing opportunities and information to students about various jobs in the animal health care profession.
There are several clubs at Palo Alto that appeal to students’ interests and hobbies.
The Fine Arts Club’s purpose is to offer members a chance to grow artistically, and to increase students’ knowledge and opportunities of a career as a professional artist.
The Palo Alto Writer’s Guild (PAWG) and The Mission are both organizations for writers. PAWG offers students the chance to share their stories, poems, essays and any other piece of writing with other students. It is a small group because most of the members come from the Creative Writing class. Anyone who enjoys writing and wants to share their work with other writers is encouraged to join.
“The Guild exists strictly to help students get their creative work published,” said Joseph Booker, the PAWG adviser.
The Mission is an organization that publishes a student newspaper called The Paladin.
The Palo Alto Karate Club offers knowledge of the martial arts with self-defense, physical training and history lessons.
The Palo Alto Collegiate 4-H Club encourages students to continue their 4-H activities from high school. The club not only assists college students with continuing in 4-H or becoming familiar with it, but they also prepare high school 4-H members to become more familiar with college life.
The Student Activities Center, located in Room 123 in the Student Center in between the Bookstore and the Bursar’s Office, has information on every organization listed. If you are interested in starting an organization, visit Student Activities. They will be more than willing to help you get started, although it would be helpful to already have at least five people interested in joining.
For more information, contact Student Activities at (210) 921-5290.