How WiE are Involved on Campus
As the home of over a thousand registered student organizations, Purdue has something for everyone. These clubs, teams, and groups provide an ideal way for students to supplement their academic pursuits and explore passions and facets of themselves outside of the classroom. While everyone has their individual preferences, the following student organizations are some of my personal favorites.
CHAARG (Changing Health, Attitudes + Actions to Recreate Girls) is a national women’s fitness community with a chapter at Purdue that hosts a wide range of exercise and social events. Weekly workouts with the whole chapter rotate through a variety of workouts (kickboxing, pilates, yoga, HIIT, etc.) both on and off campus while weekly small groups form closer connections with a core group of girls. This organization also hosts social events throughout the year such as collage making, movie nights, glass painting, and holiday parties as well as partner events with other organizations on campus like the Parkour and Calisthenics Club and the Women’s Rugby Football Club. CHAARG is a fantastic way to check all of your extracurricular boxes from exercise and physical health to creative pursuits and social get-togethers. First-year students in particular can benefit from the exposure to the assortment of activities on Purdue’s campus, while all members reap the support of a dedicated girl group from all over campus that cheers each other on.
The Purdue Outing Club is your one-stop shop for anything and everything to do with the outdoors. From backpacking, camping, and rock climbing to mountain biking and water sports, this club is particularly impressive due to the breadth and depth of its offerings. Day trips include canoeing down rivers, hiking through the woods, and indoor recreational facilities in nearby cities; weekend trips span across state lines for backpacking through state parks, exploring caves, and whitewater kayaking; over university breaks, the Outing Club hosts extensive trips to ski in Colorado, canoe in the Everglades, hike through the Grand Canyon, and more. This club is truly a choose-your-own-adventure experience; members can pick and choose events based on their availability, skill level, and desire to participate in a favored activity or try something new. With free rental of everything from tents and sleeping bags to kayaks and headlamps, the Outing Club is also a terrific way to travel on a college budget and get off campus for a change of scenery.
Higher Ground Dance Company is an entirely student-run dance company that choreographs and produces two shows a year with dozens of numbers in all sorts of styles: ballet, lyrical, jazz, contemporary, tap, hip hop, pom, and more. All proceeds from the shows benefit the Andrea Rizzo Foundation: a nonprofit providing dance therapy to children with special needs and terminal illnesses in pediatric hospitals. These performances are impressive productions; lights, costumes, and seamless transitions on the stage of one of Purdue’s theaters make the dances themselves even more impressive. Company members are free to continue dancing a known style from previous high school/club dance organizations or try a new avenue to broaden their horizons. This is another student organization that offers significant flexibility; both dancers and choreographers can pursue a new or preexisting passion without the burden of competitive involvement and shape their experience to their personal desires and goals. As well, with more than two hundred members, HGDC is also an amazing way to meet new people and form friendships with others from all different majors.
This is only the tip of Purdue’s student organization iceberg, and there are enough amazing groups to fill a dozen more articles. Whichever organizations you decide to join, enjoy your time and you’ll get out what you put in!
CHAARG
CHAARG (Changing Health, Attitudes + Actions to Recreate Girls) is a national women’s fitness community with a chapter at Purdue that hosts a wide range of exercise and social events. Weekly workouts with the whole chapter rotate through a variety of workouts (kickboxing, pilates, yoga, HIIT, etc.) both on and off campus while weekly small groups form closer connections with a core group of girls. This organization also hosts social events throughout the year such as collage making, movie nights, glass painting, and holiday parties as well as partner events with other organizations on campus like the Parkour and Calisthenics Club and the Women’s Rugby Football Club. CHAARG is a fantastic way to check all of your extracurricular boxes from exercise and physical health to creative pursuits and social get-togethers. First-year students in particular can benefit from the exposure to the assortment of activities on Purdue’s campus, while all members reap the support of a dedicated girl group from all over campus that cheers each other on.
Outing Club
The Purdue Outing Club is your one-stop shop for anything and everything to do with the outdoors. From backpacking, camping, and rock climbing to mountain biking and water sports, this club is particularly impressive due to the breadth and depth of its offerings. Day trips include canoeing down rivers, hiking through the woods, and indoor recreational facilities in nearby cities; weekend trips span across state lines for backpacking through state parks, exploring caves, and whitewater kayaking; over university breaks, the Outing Club hosts extensive trips to ski in Colorado, canoe in the Everglades, hike through the Grand Canyon, and more. This club is truly a choose-your-own-adventure experience; members can pick and choose events based on their availability, skill level, and desire to participate in a favored activity or try something new. With free rental of everything from tents and sleeping bags to kayaks and headlamps, the Outing Club is also a terrific way to travel on a college budget and get off campus for a change of scenery.
Furry Fosters
Furry Fosters is a student-run club dedicated to increasing awareness and involvement of the student body in the socialization, fostering, and adoption process of rescue and shelter cats in the Greater Lafayette area. They host campus-wide events such as Cat Yoga and Kittens & Cocoa; as well, general member events are open to the public and include tote bag painting and pizza parties, all complete with visiting cats. Whether you’re currently looking to temporarily foster, permanently adopt, or just spend some time with cats, Furry Fosters is a welcoming space for students no matter what level of involvement they are able or would like to commit. Events and general meetings are wonderful for destressing, experiencing the health benefits of interaction with pets, and expanding your social circle by bonding over a shared love of cats. Additionally, the TLC that the rescue and foster cats receive is ideal for breaking up their time in the shelter and makes this student organization a win-win for all parties.Higher Ground Dance Company
Higher Ground Dance Company is an entirely student-run dance company that choreographs and produces two shows a year with dozens of numbers in all sorts of styles: ballet, lyrical, jazz, contemporary, tap, hip hop, pom, and more. All proceeds from the shows benefit the Andrea Rizzo Foundation: a nonprofit providing dance therapy to children with special needs and terminal illnesses in pediatric hospitals. These performances are impressive productions; lights, costumes, and seamless transitions on the stage of one of Purdue’s theaters make the dances themselves even more impressive. Company members are free to continue dancing a known style from previous high school/club dance organizations or try a new avenue to broaden their horizons. This is another student organization that offers significant flexibility; both dancers and choreographers can pursue a new or preexisting passion without the burden of competitive involvement and shape their experience to their personal desires and goals. As well, with more than two hundred members, HGDC is also an amazing way to meet new people and form friendships with others from all different majors.
Purdue Society of Women Engineers (PSWE)
Purdue Society of Women Engineers is the country’s oldest continually chartered SWE section and, with over fifty events a year, is an active and flourishing organization that provides immense value to its more than 600 members. Built on the Professional, Outreach, Technical, and Social pillars, PSWE has something for everyone. Professional development initiatives range from career fairs to graduate and professional mentorship programs, while students involved in the outreach aspect write pen pal letters to local children, coordinate SWEekend for prospective female engineering students, and host Girl Scout Day to expose elementary schoolers to engineering ideas and applications. PSWE’s Technical Pillar contains both the Grand Prix team that maintains, improves, and races karts in the annual Grand Prix race and the Team Tech group that works with a company on a design project for the National SWE competition. Social events are hosted regularly and encompass everything from blanket making to weekly Bagel Breaks on Fridays. PSWE also sponsors SWE national and local conference visits to help members grow professionally and personally as female engineers.This is only the tip of Purdue’s student organization iceberg, and there are enough amazing groups to fill a dozen more articles. Whichever organizations you decide to join, enjoy your time and you’ll get out what you put in!
Natalie Anderson, MechE '27
Recruitment Project Committee
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