Finding Home At Tufts
I had my first in-person Tufts club fair earlier this year, and it was absolutely wild. Every path along the entire academic quad was lined with tables full of students advertising clubs in every possible field you can think of. My friends and I were blown away, and weaved through the stands throwing our emails around with reckless abandon. I wasn’t able to remain a member of all of the clubs I signed up for, but out of the large initial batch, I found a few clubs that I really loved and jumped in.
As I brawled through the academic quad I knew that joining a club is one of the best ways to find a community at Tufts- you’re joining a group of people who all want to spend their valuable free time doing the same thing, so you’re guaranteed to have a lot in common. This worked out perfectly when I joined the robotics club; we’ve only had a few weekly meetings but I’ve met a bunch of cool people who share my interests (some even share my major), and I’ve started working on some great projects and I’ve made some new friends.
What I didn’t realize when going into the club fair was how exploring certain spaces is also a great way of finding a community at Tufts. For me, since my interests are pretty STEM centered, I have found this place to be the Nolop makerspace. It’s an incredible room to walk into, with an array of 3D printers lining the back wall, tables set up with soldering equipment, a room of power tools behind big glass windows, and large whiteboards on the walls. The most important quality of Nolop, however, were the people there. The energy was great, students were collaborating on group projects, knocking out problem sets, messing around with the 3D printers, and sketching elaborate designs on the whiteboards.
As I continued absorbing the vibes of the room, I realized that people were helping other students who were doing totally different assignments. The help ranged from brief things, like explaining a problem in breadboard wiring, to something much more involved, like recalibrating the 3D printer. The important thing is that in many of the cases, the kids working together didn’t know each other at all. It was this kind collaboration that made me really feel at home, and luckily this spirit is present at countless locations across campus.