Up From the Underground
Shining a light on Rider’s overlooked student-run clubs

By Amanda Thorogood and Paul Szaniawski


Raise your hand if you have heard about the interesting events to be held by Rider’s Slavic Club. In fact, raise your hand if you have ever even heard of the organization.

There are a handful of unique, student-run organizations that are unknown to most students, including the Photography Club and the Chess Club.

“The key to a successful club is having a strong base of students interested and following up on possibly recruiting members,” David Keenan, director of Campus Life, said.

One club that has been successful in its effort to recruit members but still isn’t well-known is the Slavic Club.

“Currently, we have 35 members and most of them are very active — something you don’t see at Rider,” club vice president Daria Georgiyeva, a junior, said. “It’s pretty nice.”

Although the group has just become active this semester, it is anxious to inform both students and faculty about the origins of Slavic customs.

“One of our biggest events is planned for International Week on March 30,” Georgiyeva, who is from Eastern Europe, said. “The president of the club, Lada Pastushak, is an outstanding Ukrainian folk dancer, and she is inviting her dancing group, Voloshky, to perform at Rider.”

The club has sponsored a trip to the Guggenheim Museum to see the “Russia!” exhibit and has shown the movie The Pianist. The club tries to meet every other week to discuss ideas about future activities.

At the moment, the club is collecting school supplies, toys and clothes for underprivileged students in Trenton as well as an orphanage in Russia.

“We plan to send these donations to children in Russia to help them develop because they are poor and the government does not support them,” Georgiyeva said.

Anyone interested in joining can e-mail Pastushak at pastushak@rider.edu.

Those who aspire to have careers in photography or just enjoy taking candid photos of friends and family may be eager to learn that Rider has its own Photography Club. At meetings, members share photographs with one another and gain feedback from their peers as well as from the occasional guest speaker.

“One of the best pieces of advice I have taken away from a guest speaker is that no matter what type of camera you have, whether digital or from your cell phone, at least you can capture that picture and that memory,” the club’s president, senior Robert Fink, said.

Fink, who helped establish the club three years ago, said the group is for anyone from amateurs, who may not even own a camera, to pro-amateurs who have a dark room or Photoshop experience. He calls the club “a great outlet.”

“We have a really diverse membership,” Fink said. “The Photography Club is for anyone who enjoys any type of art and is looking to express themselves.”

Those interested in the Photography Club can attend meetings, held every other Monday from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Room 304 of the Memorial Academic Building.

“It really allows you to see the world through other lenses,” Fink said.

Another club that is based on a hobby but offers students a little more competition is the Chess Club. Both aspiring and skilled players play matches against one another, but club president junior Danielle Holmes said every member in the club is eager to help beginners. The group has even set aside specific tables to instruct those who may know little about the game or are just interested in learning how to play.

The Chess Club also holds a few tournaments each semester. So far, the tournaments have only been amongst Rider students, but the club is looking to widen its range of opponents.

“We hope to soon make a team to compete with other schools,” Holmes said.

Meetings are held on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., in the third-floor lounge of Memorial. The Chess Club faces the same obstacles that other lesser-known clubs have met.

“We are only in our second year,” Holmes said. “We are still maturing.”