Your Guide to the First Look Fair

Whether you juggle, fly rockets or want to talk about heavy metal music, there’s a club for every Terp. Actually, about 900 student organizations and clubs are registered at the university—and many of them will be represented at the annual First Look Fair today.

Rescheduled from last week (due to rain) and trimmed to one day (to avoid overlapping with Yom Kippur), the event run by the Student Organization Resource Center is an outdoor bazaar of extracurricular activities. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on McKeldlin Mall, academic societies, cultural groups, sports clubs, advocacy groups and more will be wooing passersby to consider joining.

The prospect of finding your niche may seem overwhelming, but we’re here to help you avoid aimlessly weaving through the crowds. See our map indicating locations of groups, and our highlights of some of the most interesting and unique participants.

Academic

• Technica Hacks: The brains behind Technica, the largest all-women 24-hour hackathon in the world.
• Wildlife Society: Promoting wildlife science, research and management (while taking hikes and going on field trips, literally)
• Leatherbacks: A combat robot fight club. For real. Build your own mini-bot for competition or work as a team to build a 250-pound battle bot.

General

• Good Vibe Tribe: Spreads positivity to de-stress students, especially through YouTube playlists, with everything from funk to yoga music.
• Longboarding Society: Spreads the stoke and promotes safety for skaters. No board? No problem. Members can provide one. Just wear a helmet, for goodness’ sake.

Cultural

• Student Success Leadership Council: Holds events—including a spring gala with faculty and alumni—to strengthen Maryland's black community academically and professionally.
• G-Girls & the Wasabi Boyz: A co-ed dance team that performs to music from Asian pop groups and sharest Asian pop culture.

Religious

• Meor Maryland: Offers learning and service opportunities for Jewish students, such as journeys abroad and discussions on campus.
• Secular Student Alliance: Welcome, freethinkers and those who may not identify with traditional religion.

Service/advocacy

• Beekeeping Club: Suit up to save the pollinators (and, seriously, our food supply) with hive maintenance and craft-making.
• Yogi Terps: Strengthen your mind-body connection through events such as an “acro jam”: aka stand on your head and meditate on McKeldin Mall.
• Helping Out My Younger Self: The name says it all, especially for local Terps, by supporting Prince George’s County high schoolers getting ready for college.

Sports

• Maryland Quidditch: If you know what a golden snitch is, pay attention: Students and faculty can compete regionally and nationally in team matches of the sport created in the “Harry Potter” book series.
• Parkour and Freerunning: Jump, climb, do anything but walk to join this club, which practices unconventional movement and obstacle-dodging to get from points A to B.