Her Campus Emory (HCE): What is the Once in a Lifetime Club and what are its goals?
Becky Levitan (BL): Once in a Lifetime is a new club which aims to create so-called “once in a lifetime” opportunities for Emory students. Each month we sponsor a number of extraordinary events, which push Emory students out of their comfort zone to grow intellectually and experientially. The events are suggested, planned, and managed entirely by club members. Club members sign up for the events in which they are interested, and if the sign up exceeds capacity, we use a raffle system to determine who gets to attend. The events range in interest from a private meditation session with the Tibetan monks to swimming with beluga whales at the aquarium to skydiving. Everyone is welcome to participate or lead an event!
HCE: Why did you start the club?
BL: I started the club after speaking with friends who are involved in a ton of different activities on campus but wanted to branch out. Most Emory students are involved and dedicated to our student community, but it is easy to forget that we live in a larger city and world. By breaking out of the Emory bubble, we often learn far more than we can in a classroom. I also wanted to foster connections between different students groups that might not necessarily interact and assemble a collection of students who share an adventurous spirit. The club provides a venue where people from all years, majors, and backgrounds can share their enthusiasm for trying new amazing things.
HCE: Who is involved in the club?
BL: The club has a super talented twelve-person exec team, which includes male and female representatives from each year. These students manage the publicity of the club and helped generate the initial list of once in a lifetime experiences that we are putting into motion. We are one of the fastest growing clubs at Emory: there are currently over 160 members of the club, and it is continuing to get bigger every day! Our faculty sponsor is Dr. Corey Keyes of the Sociology Dept, who specializes in flourishing and the psychology of happiness. I recently met with President Wagner who was curious about the club and how it worked. Hopefully he will continue to demonstrate interest and maybe even help us out with an event (pool party anyone?).
HCE: What are some of the planned events?
BL: In the near future the club is sponsoring four events. On Easter Sunday we have a group going to Ebenezer Baptist Church for their big Sunday morning Easter ceremony. Ebenezer was the church where Dr. Martin Luther King preached and is a civil rights landmark that most Emory students don’t know about or visit. That same afternoon, we are co-sponsoring ICE Holi, an Indian color festival, here on campus. Later in April a group is going ziplining at the largest ziplining course in the United States in north Georgia. Finally, we are co-sponsoring the crawfish boil with RUF at the end of the month. Our next two projects are a private meditation session with the monks and dinner with a Holocaust survivor.
HCE: Future plans?
BL: Then next year we are going to start with a bang! We will be going skydiving, cave spelunking, swimming and rock sliding at Talullah Gorge for the outdoor adventurers. We will also hopefully be painting a mural in Atlanta and swimming with whales at the aquarium at some point next year! Of course, next year we will also be recruiting new freshmen for the club as well as encouraging upperclassmen to get involved.
If you are interested in getting involved with Once in a Lifetime Club, as a member, part of exec, or a trip leader, please contact Rebecca Levitan.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Emory chapter.