There’s more to university life than books and lectures.
Apart from the academic curriculum, SMU’s education also places strong emphasis on co-curricular components such as community service, global learning activities, career workshops, as well as student clubs and societies, to help further to enrich your university life.
With over 120 student clubs to choose from across four CCA clusters that contribute to a vibrant, well-rounded student experience, you will find kindred spirits, no matter how obscure the interest. So take time to explore your interests and forge memories with friends that will last a lifetime.
To get you started, here are some interesting CCAs from each of the four clusters that might pique your interest:
SMU Stereometa (Arts & Cultural Fraternity cluster)
Ever wanted to try your hand at DJ-ing? SMU Stereometa is a DJ collective and digital music creation club, where the University’s amateur disc jockeys gather. It was started in 2007 with the aim of bringing together like-minded music fiends. Apart from DJ101 classes, the club also organises signature parties as well as showcase events during special occasions like Halloween or Valentine’s Day, in a bid to promote music appreciation and awareness. To date, Stereometa’s talented DJs have also been featured in high profile clubs such as Zouk, Wavehouse, VICE, Altimate, etc. More recently, Stereometa scored a win at the Live Mix Maestro 2019 with president Nicholas Kong claiming the first runner-up position.
Showcase by SMU Stereometa president, Nicholas Kong (aka DJ Kong):
SMU Stereometa is part of the SMU Arts and Cultural Fraternity (ACF), which is a platform for students to realise their artistic potential, cultivate their passions for the arts, and foster a close-knit arts community. Other clubs in this fraternity include the ballroom dancing club SMU Ballare, SMUSAIC for photography enthusiasts, as well as the A Cappella group SMU Voix.
Check out @smuacf on Instagram for the latest activities.
SMU Conjunct Consulting and SMU Barworks (Special Interest and Community Service Sodality cluster)
If you’re a student looking to do your part in bringing about social change while gaining valuable experience at the same time, then the SMU Conjunct Consulting club is for you. As part of a Southeast Asia-wide social change consultancy, they provide pro bono consultancy services for social good organisations. Since the consultancy started in 2011, it has worked with over 120 non-profit partners across various sectors on over 200 consulting projects, and created over S$5 million worth of social impact.
A more light-hearted special interest group is SMU Barworks, which specialises in the art of mixology and bartending. It was founded in 2009, with the aim to share knowledge while at the same time promote responsible drinking. Every semester, SMU Barworks conducts a series of bartending courses to teach participants more about the craft, on top of arranging behind-the-scene tours at various bars and breweries in Singapore.
Both SMU Conjunct Consulting and SMU Barworks fall under the Special Interest and Community Service Sodality (SICS)—one of the four student club clusters which represents the special interest groups and community service groups in SMU.
Check out @smu_sics on Instagram for the latest activities.
SMU Tchoukball (SMU Sports Union cluster)
What would a university be without its sporting clubs. The SMU Sports Union (SSU) was set up in 2005 and is the ambassador for all sporting entities in SMU from bowling to netball, golf to taekwondo. It plays a vital role in shaping and cultivating the University’s vibrant student life through its aims of enhancing welfare, fostering cohesiveness, and promoting solidarity through sports.
One of the more unusual sports you will find in SMU is Tchoukball(pronounced as chuke-ball)—an indoor team sport developed by Swiss biologist Dr Hermann Brandt in the 1970s, containing elements of handball, volleyball and squash. The unique aspect of this game is that it doesn’t involve any physical contact, as it was born out of Dr Brandt’s concern about the number of sports-related injuries during that time. He ended up creating a sport that was not aggressive between players, and enabled people of all shapes, sizes, genders, cultures and backgrounds to play together harmoniously.
Check out @smusportsunion on Instagram for the latest sports club activities.
SMUX Alpine Sports (SMUXtremists cluster)
For adrenaline junkies, there’s always the SMUXtremists (SMUX) to consider. They represent outdoor adventure CCAs like scuba diving, kayaking, biking and trekking, as well as the SMUX Alpine Sports team. For the adrenaline junkie, you definitely don’t want to miss their yearly expedition to Niseko, Japan, to scale the powdery white mountain slopes.
Since this cluster was first established in 2000, they have organised many different land and sea-based activities and expeditions, as well as social initiatives like the overseas community service projects, Reef Alert and Bike4Change.
Check out @smuxtremists on Instagram for the latest activities.
