Alexandra Morgante

Staff Writer

 

Florida Southern College welcomed two new clubs to the campus starting in the 2014 spring semester. The Florida Southern Computer Science Club and the Florida Southern Cancer Society, have both become established clubs this semester.

The computer science club started out as casual lunch conversation between Jordan Finney and Jim Ecker last semester, founders of the new organization. Finney and Ecker’s passion for computers led them to meet outside of class for lunch, until eventually more students joined them.

“We were surprised how many people were eager to discuss anything related to tech and computing,” Jordan Finney, the club’s acting secretary, said. “Eventually we decided to turn the casual lunches into club meetings.”

With their main goal, according to Finney, to create a place for, “anyone and everyone to express their passion for computing systems and technology in general,” the club strives to create a place for computer science passions to grow.

The club members focus on programming competitions, which they compete in.

“We attended the IBM ACM International Collegiate Programming Competition last semester and performed better than expected,” Finney said. “We hope to return and perform even better next year.”

The club hopes to reach out in the community by helping high schools run simple courses and robotics clubs. They also hope to work with Boy Scout troops.

The computer science club is in the process of becoming a Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Chapter, an organization for computing professionals.

“The only requirement is an interest and willingness to learn computer science,” Brian Giddens, president, said.

Giddens reiterates that the club is open to all majors. The Florida Southern Computer Science Club meets every Thursday.

Meetings rotate between general computing meetings and programming competition practices. Finney recommends that for any students interested in joining the club to attend a general meeting.

The Florida Southern Cancer Society is the second club to arrive on campus this spring semester. They officially became a club in January 2014.

Founder and President, Amber Boyles, is a two-time survivor of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a cancer starting in the bone marrow. Boyles came to Florida Southern as a freshman feeling alone and secluded- she saw this as an opportunity to spread cancer awareness.

“I came to campus as a freshman with no support. I felt out of place,” Boyles said. “I realize now that I’m not the only one. I wanted to provide support to other people and their families.”

Boyles’s lack of support on campus has led to her interest in helping others. Her ultimate goal with the club is to raise support and awareness of other cancers,

Boyles feels breast cancer is supported so generously, while some other forms of cancer are overlooked.

A goal for the organization is to partner with the American Cancer Society on FSC’s campus. Boyles would like to work with Greek sororities and fraternities to spread awareness.

The next event for the Florida Southern Cancer Society is on March 17 at 7 p.m. on Mr. George’s Green. The event will include a showing of the movie “My Sister’s Keeper.” In addition to the movie there will be guests invited to share their stories and talk about leukemia.