Although some student organizations and clubs fade away before their time, sometimes it only takes the right people to put it back on the map. The Sociology Club at OU, once retired but brought back to life last semester, aims to help students understand the importance of sociology, and connect with others majoring in sociology.
Sierra Spry, the treasurer and co-founder of the Sociology Club, explains her journey and motives to bring the club back.
“The president [Kate Bird] and I restarted this club last semester in winter 2024,” Spry said. “We got the idea from the professors in our department, because Kate and I both agreed that it was really hard to find other sociology majors in our classes. We share so many classes with other majors, such as anthropology, criminal justice and social work, that we would be in these sociology classes and be the only sociology majors in the room. So initially, we just started the club so that we could find other sociology majors.”
Finding more students interested in sociology was not a hard task, as the club’s first GrizzFest as a restarted club was a success.
“We were at GrizzFest and it was very successful,” Spry said. “We found a lot of freshmen that are coming in that are somewhat interested in sociology, but they haven’t been exposed to it before. Now, we have an intro class that has a bunch of freshmen that are thinking about majoring in sociology, and they’re definitely interested in the club, so that has been really encouraging.”
Spry explains how the club is working to add mild education into the meetings.
“We do a lot of social events with mild education in it, but we tend to keep it a little lower on the hardcore education of sociology,” Spry said. “We want it to be open for everybody, and we don’t want to feel like there’s any barriers to coming to the meetings.”
Spry delves into the different events the Sociology Club holds, including a particular event she is proud of — zine making.
“The kind of events that we put on, we’ll have game night socials, we’ll talk about classes, we’ll introduce professors and we’ll do arts and crafts. We also did a zine making meeting where we taught a little bit about how to make them and how zines historically play a role in politics and in sharing information that isn’t normally publicized in other forms of publications.”
Along with the events, Spry wants to show members how they can use sociology in the workforce.
“Sociology is something that can be used in a multitude of ways,” Spry said. “I know a lot of people’s sociology degrees go into HR or they go into a lot of nonprofit work. I have worked for a nonprofit and it really just teaches a perspective on the world that I feel not a lot of other majors can teach.”
Later this semester, the Sociology Club plans to collaborate with other CAS clubs, such as the Anthropology Club. For more information on upcoming events and to learn more about the club, visit their Instagram page @sociologyclubou or visit their GrizzOrgs webpage.
