Doctor Who is Bringing Students Together
By Leah Tedesco
Doctor Who fan organizations are all the rage at Indiana schools.
When I was in high school in the latter half of the 1990s, other than things such as the math team, band, chorus, and drama club (I was a member of the latter two), there were no geeky organizations. In my college years, which began not long before the new millennium, choices for geeks were expanded to include relatively general organizations such as a student chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Adventure Role Playing Club, and Anime Club… I was involved in them all.
My experiences came at the time immediately before the current golden age of geekiness. It never even occurred to me to start a club for fans of a single television program. According to an article in The Ball State Daily, that is exactly what students in Indiana have recently started to do.
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The article focusses on a student named Drew Hayden, who founded the Gallifreyan Anthropology Club when he was in high school in Portage, and later a “College Edition” at Ball State University in Muncie. The basic purpose of the club is to bring students together to watch Doctor Who — not just folks who are already fans, but ones who are curious about the show. We all know how much Whovians adore converting people to the fandom. Both chapters have been successes, and have proven to be valuable places for people to socialize. And the networking is not just limited to GAC. They also work with related Ball State organizations, as well as Doctor Who groups from other schools.
"Last year, GAC paired up with Ball State’s Comic Book Club for a time travel night. GAC also joined other Ball State fandom organizations for a Halloween party.Hayden began to build connections with “Doctor Who” organizations at nearby colleges: Indiana, Purdue and DePaul universities.Neathie Patel, co-president of Indiana University’s Doctor Who Society, already wanted to meet other Indiana “Doctor Who” clubs when she received a Facebook message from GAC.Patel and her organization’s members attended a pet project of Hayden’s: an event he dubbed Indiana Whovians United, where the college clubs merged to watch season eight of “Doctor Who.”"
The GAC also inspired Jerome Bingham to start a chapter at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis when he transferred there from Ball State University. It sounds like Indiana is a major place to be for Whovians! Keep that in mind when submitting your college applications.
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Do you have a Doctor Who club at your school? Let us know about it in the comments.