The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

Hiking Club initiates a spark in active hobbies for students

Hiking+Club+initiates+a+spark+in+active+hobbies+for+students

Finals week has everyone stressing out, and pondering over a series of different possibilities that could occur.

Late fall 2016 two friends studied together for an upcoming exam in their American Pop Culture class.

Freshmen Hillary Rodriguez and Sofia Groba came to the conclusion that they wanted to get more involved on campus.

They searched the brochure of clubs offered on campus but neglected to find one that sparked their interest.

Both Groba and Rodriguez decided to take initiative and create a new unique club never thought of before.

“We wanted to join a club for recreational activities,” Hillary Rodriguez, 19, sociology major said.

They came to the conclusion of creating a hiking club for people to be more active and then made it a reality and are now the president and co-president’s of the club.

Groba, 19, psychology major, wanted to create a club that sparked interest and started a new trend in college clubs.

“Most people (in SoCal) like to hike, its low-maintenance exercise and we should start this,” Groba, president of the club, said.

It took them about two months to make sure all the paper work was revised correctly, and a process to find an adviser on board with the idea.

“It is a very tedious (and) long process, it takes a lot of paper work,” co-president of the club Rodriguez said.

The Hiking Club finally got approved in March and just met again for their third meeting Tuesday, April 4.

Each week they have had great turnouts ranging from about 15 to 30 people, Groba said.

In order to provide a stable process, the pair managed to recruit two advisers eager to be part of a new club campus.

Rocio Diaz, counselor for the Opportunity Project, and Ricky Gonzales, support staff for student specialist, each take charge different tasks assigned to advisers for the Hiking Club.

Gonzales, who is also a newly recruited adviser as of Tuesday, April 4, explains that since the club is fairly new the foundation is still being created by the fellow presidents.

“We just had a meeting today, (April 4) as an introduction to all the recruits, including myself,” Gonzales said.

The Hiking Club aims to have a series of fundraisers, and a total of four local hikes by the end of the spring 2017 semester.

“Our first hiking trip will be April 23,” Groba said. “We will be hiking from Griffith Park to Mount Hollywood.”

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