At a university with over 1,400 student organizations, selecting which clubs to get involved with can feel like a daunting task. Even more likely, this potentially overwhelming quantity of campus clubs can result in many one-of-a-kind student groups going unnoticed.
For students looking to use the new semester as an opportunity to increase their on-campus involvement, below is a compilation of some of Ohio State’s niche clubs.
Bucket List Club
When Havi Patel, a fourth-year in marketing and operations management, was crossing items off his personal bucket list, he stumbled across an uncompleted entry that intrigued him: start a club.
As he pondered potential themes for an on-campus organization, Patel realized the answer was right in front of him. It was then that Ohio State’s Bucket List Club — dedicated to fulfilling its members’ life goals as one adventurous group — was born.
From paintballing to camping to skydiving, Sydney Armstrong, a fourth-year in marketing and operations management and the club’s vice president, said the club’s excursions are open to nonmembers, though all students have to pay the same fees as club members to participate.
“We want to make a space where people feel safe in expressing their interests and what they want to do with their life,” Armstrong said. “Not a lot of people have a community for those kinds of things. You don’t really know a lot of people that want to go skydiving unless you are surrounded by like-minded people.”
More information about the Bucket List Club, which Armstrong said also partners with and fundraises for the Make-A-Wish foundation, can be found through the club’s GroupMe.
Social Reading Club
Born from a desire to fill the absence of a regularly meeting on-campus book club, the Social Reading Club was founded in January 2023 by club president Emily Pena — a fourth-year in psychology and economics — and treasurer Drew Plummer — a fifth-year in electric and computer engineering.
Plummer said the group is designed to welcome all students, regardless of their major. In fact, it was this inclusive quality that inspired Plummer to establish the club, he said.
“I think that when people think ‘book club,’ they think of English majors or people who are already involved in literature,” Plummer said. “As someone who is an engineering major myself, I don’t have regular reading involved in my curriculum. It’s nice to have a reason to read outside of class.”
The club picks one book per month to read together, but hosts weekly meetings that alternate between book discussions and social events related to the theme of that month’s book, Plummer said. In an attempt to read a diverse collection of stories, Plummer said the club tries to pick a book from a different genre every month.
Some books the club has read in past months are “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer. More information about the Social Reading Club can be found through the club’s GroupMe, or via its Instagram page.
Cook Book Club
As college students leave their homes and transition into adulthood, they tend to possess a sometimes troublesome inexperience with cooking that can result in an overreliance on fast food or microwaveable meals. The Cook Book Club, however, aims to change that.
Established in spring 2023, the Cook Book Club is a low-commitment organization that offers students a chance to practice cooking and receive advice on improving their kitchen skills, club president Julia Steiner, a third-year in environmental science, said.
Emma Tasse, club vice president and a third-year in physics, said the Cook Book Club meets twice a month. She said the first monthly meeting involves a potluck, where all members try to cook a dish based on a preselected theme, like spooky-themed foods for October. Though Steiner said the second monthly meeting typically involves watching a cooking show and deciding the next month’s potluck theme, Tasse said the club hopes to host cooking classes during these meetings.
“I think in college, there is a culture where everyone is like, ‘I don’t know how to eat. I eat like garbage,’” Tasse said. “It was kind of empowering to meet other people and know that we are all trying new things, specifically cooking, at least once a month.”
In addition to establishing a series of cooking classes, Tasse said the club is also developing partnerships with student organizations that celebrate different cultures in an attempt to teach the Cook Book Club’s members how to make traditional meals from around the world.
The club meets on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. in Nosker House’s kitchen or its Mansfield Room. More information about the Cook Book Club — which is open to all students, regardless of cooking experience — can be found on the club’s Instagram page.
Board to Death
Contrary to what its name suggests, members of Board to Death rarely experience feelings of boredom at the club’s weekly meetings. The group congregates Thursdays from 6-10 p.m. in the Ohio Union to play a variety of different games in a relaxed, fun-focused environment, Jacob Roose, a fourth-year in neuroscience and a Board to Death event coordinator, said.
But the club doesn’t limit its members to the average board game, Katie Jennings, a fourth-year in public policy analysis and the club’s vice president, said. Jennings said the club hosts “megagames” semiregularly on Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m., where members roleplay as characters from a particular board game, in effect bringing the game to life.
“We most recently had a game called ‘Watch the Skies,’ and players could roleplay as government leaders, UN officials and even aliens,” Jennings said. “They had to work together to figure out how to cohabitate on Earth.”
Board to Death welcomes all students and alumni, and emphasizes a laid-back atmosphere where club members can come and go as they please, Roose said. This inclusive community is central to the organization itself, Jennings said.
“I have played board games since I was little with my dad,” Jennings said. “I thought, ‘Why not bring a piece of home with me to campus?’ and it was there I found a community of what would become my college friends.”
More information about Board to Death can be found on the club’s Instagram page.
Criminal Minds Society
Christina Adams, a fourth-year in animal science, and Divleen Singh, a fourth-year in microbiology, were studying for their final exams in an all-too-empty classroom when they decided they needed background noise to focus.
Thinking they wouldn’t succumb to distraction, the pair used the classroom projector to display on the walls their favorite “comfort” television show: “Criminal Minds.”
As they realized their love for the show indeed interfered with their productivity, Adams and Singh wondered if they could invent an excuse to watch “Criminal Minds” more often. Upon learning there was no existing organization dedicated to the show, the two immediately tossed their studying to the side and got to work on creating the Criminal Minds Society.
After its inception in April 2023, the Criminal Minds Society became an official student organization this fall and meets biweekly in Room 2003 of Evans Laboratory Mondays at 5:30 p.m., Singh said. The group’s meetings alternate between watching an episode of the show — which is chosen each week by a club-wide vote — and a fun activity, Singh said.
“We have done trivia and things along those lines,” Singh said. “My personal favorite activity has been to play the beginning of the episode and pause it after the first character is on screen. As a group, we guess if the character is going to be a victim, a suspect, a witness or something else.”
In the future, Adams said she hopes the Criminal Minds Society will have a bigger impact, while still maintaining a relaxed and stress-relieving environment. One particular goal of the club is to host a murder mystery night where attendees can donate to a to-be-determined charity benefiting the victims of crimes, Adams said.
More information about the Criminal Minds Society can be found on the club’s Instagram page.
