Every fall, both new and returning Wellesley students have the opportunity to attend the Fall Orgs Fair. This event gives students the opportunity to explore and join on-campus organizations that best suit their interests. Organized by the Committee of Organization and Recognition Affairs (CORA), the Orgs Fair is one of the biggest events on campus — and one of the first to kick start the new academic year. The Orgs Fair is generally held twice a year — in the fall and in the spring. However, the Fall Orgs fair is much larger, since it marks the beginning of the academic year and is attended by the new incoming class of first-years.
This year the fair took place on the grounds of Severance Green on the sunny afternoon of Sept. 7, and the event saw participation from over 141 student organizations. The fair also featured newly recognised organizations including Wellesley College Tennis Club, Wellesley Gaming, Soulaan Students Association and a ColorStack chapter at Wellesley College which seeks to increase the number of Black and Latinx students pursuing roles in tech.
Preparation for this widely anticipated event is spearheaded by the Orgs Chair, who heads CORA. Soo Ahn Lee ’25, the orgs chair for this academic year, described her role and experience with this year’s fair, planning for which began back in July.
“As Orgs Chair, I’m in charge of CORA, [which] is in charge of recognizing new orgs and also managing and giving support and resources for the current orgs,” Lee said.
The Orgs Fair is widely-recognized as an important event, as it helps on-campus orgs recruit new members, reconnect with existing members, and present the work they do. In addition, freshmen in particular get the opportunity to explore different orgs that align with their passions. In doing so, the event allows for the larger Wellesley community to come together and engage in a meaningful way.
“For currently recognized orgs, it’s a chance for them to recruit new members [and] get their name publicized. First-years [can] explore their interests. So there’s a lot of purposes [the fair serves],” Lee said.
The energy and excitement in the air during the event was infectious. In addition, seeing the passion with which student org e-boards described their diverse and creative interests to prospective members was inspiring. Lee described the innovative ways Orgs came up with to engage students attending the fair.
“A lot of e-boards enjoy bringing in snacks to give away to gain more interest. Aiko enjoys bringing their drums over. I’ve seen some club sports play — I’ve seen Whiptails throw their frisbees around. It’s really interactive,” Lee said.
Although the event was a big success, the Orgs Chair, who is in charge of planning the event, described some challenges she faced during the planning process. Preparations for the event started in June, with responsibilities such as emailing, coordinating with student orgs, collecting form responses and troubleshooting technical issues. Lee also helped to design the CORA website and collate org-related information for students in an accessible manner. However, Lee emphasized that the experience of coordinating such a large scale event and engaging with such large and well – established organizations helped her harness some important skills.
“There’s a lot of learning curves that I had,” Lee said. “I also learned a lot of ways to communicate clearly and find the most efficient way for me to organize things.”
Another addition to this year’s fair that made it stand out was the thoughtfully curated website and guidebook created by Lee. The handbook featured key information on org categories and served as a resource for e-board members and attendees alike to plan ahead by conveniently locating other orgs at the fair as per their interests.
Going forward, Lee hopes to provide a platform for organizations that were unable to showcase at the fair to recruit new members and share about the work that they do. She hopes to do this through a virtual (or in-person, if resources permit) fair at a different point during the semester.
“I felt like the whole point of the orgs fair is to see the options, see what is there to offer, and maximize … the announcement of the org, so that’s why I’m moving it to October, when we have more orgs recognized, for sure [I] want to utilize this chance to recruit more members that they missed,” Lee said.
Image Credit: Amber Celletti
Contact the editor(s) responsible for this article: Diya Khanna and Phoebe Rebhorn
