From 5 to 7 p.m., numerically-inclined individuals with great taste in games gather in BANN 419 to play board games with the Math Club, which meets every Thursday. The event is led by Patrick Baldwin-McCurdy, the club president and a fourth-year math major, with the help of Avery Feingold, a third-year computer science major and club financial officer.
Math Club welcomes people from all majors, interests, and hobbies to come have fun at board game night. The event aims to unite students who love to play board games and socialize. The hope is to build a community where everyone is welcome to share their interests and make time to socialize with others.
Baldwin-McCurdy said the club’s mission statement aims to “cultivate a community that brings math majors and non-math majors together in a love of board games, that is, to create a community.”
Math Club started nine years ago when a group of math majors wanted to bring students together once a week to play board games. They would invite students from all majors to come and join them. However, that would not be for long, as the club died out a few years later.
Four years ago, a new group of math majors decided to reignite this community and unite students using the love of board games. In addition to board game nights, Math Club hosts many unofficial events every Sunday, such as hiking, playing Magic: The Gathering, and hanging out on the club’s Discord server.
The Discord server serves as the club’s primary point of contact. The server even has a channel where math students struggling with math problems can share their questions and receive help from experienced students.
Baldwin-McCurdy brought up how members of the Math Club stay connected even after graduating.
“Even during times where we’re not on campus, during the summer and during the winter, we’ll have weekly meetings and just catch up with people. Catch up with friends. There are people who graduated three years ago who still show up to those events,” Baldwin-McCurdy said.
Cameron Kazimour, a first-year computer science major, is a Math Club member who regularly visits board game night. Kazimour has built many memories and lasting friends at the Math Club and looks forward to every chance he gets to go to one of their events.
Math Club has helped Kazimour open up and be less nervous when interacting with new people.
“I feel like it’s one of my favorite clubs because I feel I’ve sort of gotten to know the other people in the club, and it’s about something that I’m interested in. I feel like it’s a good club for me,” Kazimour said.
Club members aren’t the only ones who find it difficult to interact and meet new people. The board member, Feingold, expressed how he enjoys the challenge of building a community for math club as it helps him better himself.
“I felt that I gained a lot from this coming to SU and eventually joining math club, and just in general board games as a means to really connect with people. I have found it a fulfilling role. But it also has been challenging, especially because this year, personally, I’ve been going through a lot of growth, and also just in terms of school,” Feingold said.
Math Club is definitely not the biggest club on campus, but it is not the smallest, either. It has its own little community of board game enthusiasts and math-driven students. Math Club has been and will always be a place for students from all different backgrounds and majors to come together to play board games.
