John Carroll University hosted a virtual involvement fair over Zoom on Friday, Sept. 8 for students wishing to get involved in campus organizations.. For three hours, nearly 75 of JCU’s clubs and programs were represented.

Katy Zoller, president of Students Demand Action at John Carroll University, recently started the organization to fight against gun violence . She explained that she was looking forward to reaching students at the involvement fair. Even after the announcement of JCU’s continuation of virtual instruction in the fall, she still had hope she could spread her message in an online environment.

“Our favorite aspect of the Involvement Fair is getting to connect with new people who can join us in the fight to end gun violence.” Zoller told The Carroll News. “Since this is our first Involvement Fair as an official student organization, we are excited to share the opportunities that Students Demand Action has to offer. Having been participants of the fair last year, we wanted to offer what students are looking for in a student organization—interactive activities, like-minded students and a welcoming community.”

Zoller said, “We didn’t expect to reach as many people as we might have if the event were in-person, but we were still optimistic about connecting with passionate people.” . The Instagram account of the program, @sda_jcu, advertised the fair heavily for weeks in hopes to “reach more students and build a strong team.

“Jenn Patterson and the rest of the team from the Office of Student Engagement made putting together the logistics of the fair very seamless,” Zoller continued. “Preparing the actual content of our meeting took more time since we want to showcase our gun violence prevention work in a concise and interactive way.”

Students said they were pleased with the fair. Aiyanna Kehoe ‘24 said, “The Zooms went really well since most of the time, it was, like, one to three representatives and then just me. But then if anyone else came, one group did a breakout room, which was a really smart way to use Zoom.”

However, Kehoe expressed some disappointment that Greek life was not involved in the fair:“Most of the sororities weren’t there, so I wish they were there but other than that I think everything was fine.” 

For more information on organizations at John Carroll, visit the Carroll Connect tab on the JCU website.

The Carroll News reached out to the Office of Student Engagement regarding how many students were involved. The Carroll News has not yet received a reply.

UPDATE: Samantha Radel, a Graduate Assistant for Organizational Support at JCU, stated that each of the organizations represented had an average of five to six visitors during their Zoom session. While students could enter multiple Zoom sessions, it is estimated that 360 students attended the fair, but this number cannot be confirmed.