‘Club Day’ Success Reaches New Highs
Event Brings Record Number of Students to Lower Grove on Campus
Representatives from dozens of student clubs and organizations took full advantage of the opportunity to showcase what they are all about to hundreds of Touro University California students the afternoon of Aug. 11 during the annual Club and Resource Fair.
Their target audience – students such as themselves – responded in record numbers.
Yvette Elizabeth Carrillo, Director of Student Activities, said this year’s Club and Resource Day was the largest yet, with 372 registered to attend and select from among 75 student clubs and organizations, community resources, campus departments, and local businesses to visit on the lower lawn of The Grove.
The event is timed shortly after Orientation and is designed to help build community.
Snacks and cold drinks were available. Music played over the sound system. There were lawn games. And students mingled among themselves as they learned about dozens of ways to get involved on campus.
Long History, Expanded Offerings
Carrillo said Touro University California’s Club Day has been around “forever.”
It’s so significant to the campus culture that it was kept going during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Office of Student Services went to a Zoom format to allow students to connect in breakout rooms to clubs and organizations with which they were interested.
The official name was switched to Club and Resource Day in 2022 when community nonprofits that participate in the Day of Service during Orientation were invited to campus to enhance the day’s offerings.
“We do this to provide students access to those services, whether that be for their individual purposes or if their club would like to do future collaborative events, which has happened,” Carrillo said.
Executive Student Government Association President Chris Athens said that as an incoming medical student in Fall 2025, he quickly became overwhelmed by the intense academic curriculum.
“Club Day reminded me that there is more to medical school than academics,” Athens said. “It gave me the opportunity to connect with upperclassmen who shared my interests, build a sense of community, and discover opportunities at Touro that I otherwise may never have known existed.”
“All of us on the ESGA ran for our positions with the goal of making Touro a more welcoming, connected, and community-oriented campus, and few events embody those values as strongly as Club Day,” Athens said. “Organizing and leading Club Day gives the ESGA an opportunity to create a space for students to discover new interests, build relationships across classes, and feel a sense of belonging from the very beginning of their time at Touro.”