Salt Lake Community College student Justin Briggs recently established the SLCC Anthropology Club, which will be one of the organizations participating in Club Rush this week.
Students will be able to meet with Briggs, as well as other members of the club, and learn about opportunities to connect with others throughout the SLCC community while developing a broader understanding of anthropology.
“One of the things [students] can gain from SLCC’s Anthropology Club is an opportunity to step outside their shell,” says Briggs. “It’s an opportunity to reach out to other people that are different; to understand new concepts about present culture and the past as well.”
Club members will experience different cultures, meet new friends and become more involved in the community. Previous activities have included screenings of films followed by discussion of anthropological concepts presented.
Briggs plans on having lecture events for the club as well, allowing individuals in the community to discuss various anthropology-related topics.
“We want to be able to explore all of the sub-fields,” says Briggs. “There’s archaeology, cultural and physical anthropology and linguists, and we want to study all of those. I think that if you have a better understanding [of the anthropologic sub-fields]; it gives you more of a holistic view. It can help you decide what you want to major in as well as provide opportunity to just have fun and meet interesting people.”
Within the next month the club plans to come together with local refugees for a charity project in which they will help collect school supplies and other items that will be donated to a charter school for refugees.
Briggs hopes to hold club activities at least once each month. Anyone, not merely Anthropology majors, is welcome to participate in club events.
“We’re planning, in December, to possibly take a trip down to Washington, D.C. for the American Anthropological Association Convention,” says Briggs.
Though the idea is still up in the air, Briggs is hopeful to get things rolling and ready by the end of 2014.
The club meets Tuesdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Student Center at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. A meeting room has not yet been selected; however, Briggs hopes to have a room number set in place by the end of January. Individuals are invited to attend club meetings for the whole duration, or stop by for a few short moments to say “hello.”
“Anthropology is about people, but it also goes much deeper than that,” says Briggs. “[Anthropology] can teach us about not only our past but our future. It can help us unite by understanding one another and teach us more about humanity.”
For more information visit www.orgsync.com/77673/chapter or contact Justin Briggs via email at jbrigg33@bruinmail.slcc.edu.
