The Ultimate Guide to Student Clubs

New clubs and organizations popping up left and right on campus

With the dawn of a new school year comes another ambitious freshman class, determined to make the most of their college years. Upon arriving at campus, three of this year’s freshmen—Madeline Maurer ‘25 (Elementary Education), Madi Pohl ‘25 (Nursing) and Katherine Lew ‘25 (Exercise Science, pre-PT)—have taken the initiative to start their own clubs after noticing that St. Kate’s does not already offer some of the extracurriculars that they were involved in in high school.

Dew Drop Drama Co.

Board members Madeline Maurer ‘25 (Elementary Education) and Scout Weinandt ‘25 (Elementary Education) posing in front of their table for Dew Drop Drama Co. at the Activities Fair earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Madeline Maurer)

Once it is chartered, Maurer will be one of the board members of Dew Drop Drama Co., or 3DC, which will ideally be a completely student-run theater club that she describes as “a one-stop shop for all things theater.”

Maurer participated in all kinds of different aspects of theater in high school, from acting to stage management to costume design, and since she could not find an active theater club on campus, she took the initiative to start her own. “I was thinking maybe that I could find local theater to do, but I was like, ‘You know what, nobody else is going to do this. Why don’t we just do it?’” she says, describing her decision to form 3DC.

When she first came up with the idea of forming a student-driven drama company, Maurer says she expected to have trouble finding even five people who wanted to join, but surprisingly, around 50 people expressed interest. “I think a lot of people have done theater in their K-12 life,” she says. “And because it wasn’t a thing here, they’re probably going to be like, ‘Oh, I am just going to not do it anymore.’ But I think now that we’re trying to give a space for it, people will be able to get back into it.”

Although the club aims to eventually host performances in the Frey Theater or Whitby’s auditorium, its first meetings will focus largely on getting-to-know-you and introductory theater activities such as reading plays and playing drama games before a potential large (but affordable) project in the spring or fall.

Even though clubs are given funds of $140 per semester by the university, and they can request more if they need them, a drama company needs a significantly larger budget than the average student-run extracurricular. As just one example of how costs can add up quickly, Maurer says that the different kinds of tape necessary for a theater production, such as spike tape and gaff tape, can sometimes add up to $30. The early days of 3DC will be spent trying to make it an affordable and financially sustainable activity, and the club has a lot of work ahead of it to balance costs with money made from fundraisers and ticket sales.

“We’re going to have to figure out how to structure it so that we’re spending money that we have, basically, which is why we would start with smaller projects so that we can build some revenue and ticket sales, so that we’re not spending non-existent money,” Maurer says. “But it is a lot of just bouncing between fundraising and ticket sales and what set pieces, costume pieces and other resources [we can] get for an affordable price.”

Maurer even floated the idea of the drama company performing student-written pieces, referencing the expenses that come with paying royalties for access to established plays and the flexibility that comes with being able to write an original work that plays to the performers’ specific strengths and abilities. “That would save us a lot of trouble with paying royalties and stuff like that,” she says. “And then we can alter it however we need to, obviously with the [author’s] permission, and if we’re writing stuff as a group, then we can cater it to our current group.”

Above all, Maurer wants to create a space for everyone and anyone who is interested in theater, whether they have any previous experience in drama and stage productions or not. “We want it to be a place where anybody can experience the dramatic arts, whether it’s their first time or their 50th because that’s important,” she says. “It’s important that everybody has a space where they can explore.”

Felis Frisbee

Pohl is in the process of chartering an ultimate frisbee club, Felis Frisbee, at St. Kate’s. She participated in ultimate in high school, and she had previously thought that there already was a team when she applied to the university. But upon finding out that one did not already exist, she took the initiative to start a club. “When I found out there wasn’t [a team], I made a post in the 2025 Facebook group chat for everyone who applied and got accepted into St. Kate’s, and there’s a lot of interest in having it,” Pohl says. “So I decided to just go through with it and see if I could make a team.”

Like with all sports, there is a social aspect and a playing aspect to ultimate, Pohl explains. She has already succeeded in adding ultimate to the university’s roster of intramurals, but because she has decided to divide up these two facets of the sport, Pohl has taken extra steps to charter a club. Intramural meetings will be focused on learning and applying the skills to play the sport, whereas club meetings will be more social and often focused on logistics or fundraising.

If members were to practice their frisbee-throwing skills during club meetings, they would need to pay with their own funds for a person trained to deal with concussions at every event. But if playing the actual sport itself is restricted to the intramural side of things, the university already provides someone trained in concussions, hence the divide between the two sides of the sport.

As it stands now, the group has had one intramural meeting so far with a solid turnout, and about 50 people are on the email list. “[Demonstrated interest has] been better than I expected,” Pohl says. “Of course, obviously, we would want more people to show up and we would want more people to be a part of it. But we had an event through intramurals, and more people than we thought showed up.”

Their main focus right now is to establish a sense of community, with the eventual goal of hopefully moving on to bigger and better things as the members advance in skill and the club continues to build its foundation. “Currently, we are going to be working on community building, so doing things like fundraising, hopefully watching some games [that are] a part of the AUDL, which is the American Ultimate Disc League,” Pohl says. “Eventually in the future, if enough people want to, hopefully we will be recognized and able to participate in tournaments.”

SCUnified

Lew has an ambition to foster inclusivity for students with disabilities at St. Kate’s, and so has worked hard with her fellow officers to partner with Special Olympics Minnesota and charter the St. Catherine University Unified Special Olympics Club. It aims to inform the student body about how important it is to make sure that students with disabilities have a place at the university, and after a few years, Lew hopes that SCUnified will be able to work with all the clubs on campus for more inclusivity at St. Kate’s.

As someone who led the Unified Special Olympics club at her high school, served on the Special Olympics Minnesota Student Board of Directors and worked in the special education department of her school district, Lew has years of experience working to make sure that students with intellectual disabilities are included in school environments. Because of her experience working on the board specifically, Lew says that she has “been able to learn so much about what inclusion looks like, how to implement it in schools and how to strengthen relationships between persons with and without disabilities.”

Club meetings will typically consist of fostering inclusivity by having both students with and without disabilities play sports together such as flag football, basketball, soccer, floor hockey, kickball and ultimate frisbee. SCUnified will also participate in some larger events, such as sports competitions with other Unified schools and the Polar Plunge.

Lew emphasizes that the club is open to students of all abilities in sports and to those who both have and have not previously worked in special education. “Students don’t have to be extremely athletic or athletic at all to join,” she says. “We would love for all students to join and all different abilities.”

Want to join? Here are your next steps

Anyone interested in joining 3DC can reach out to Maurer at memaurer366@stkate.edu for next steps to join the club and get in touch with their inner thespian. Those more inclined toward competition and learning a unique sport can contact Pohl at mspohl521@stkate.edu, while those interested in the inclusivity- and social justice-oriented mission of SCUnified can fill out the form here.