On a campus buzzing with clubs, fundraisers, and student initiatives, students walk down the halls, filled with posters promoting endless organizations. A new effort is underway to bring campus groups together, from dancers in Silver Stars to cadets in JROTC. Every group has a mission, and this year there is a push to share the goals to be more unified. The Bowie U.N. is a new way to align the clubs in a way that benefits the entire campus.
Aiming to strengthen collaboration across campus, Student Council has created the new program led by Student Council presidents Gabby Bochey and Reed Watts, designed to bring multiple clubs together and enhance the school community. The Bowie U.N. aims to unite clubs, help support broadcasts, drives, and fundraisers to make the campus more connected and informed.
“Our purpose of doing a U.N. as Student Council is to support overall and broadcast more drives going around the school and engage community awareness,” Student Council Co-President Gabby Bochey said. “Whether it’s events for smaller Bowie clubs or fundraisers, or drives. The purpose of U.N. is just to spread and further enhance communication around the campus, among students and staff.”
While Bowie U.N. is led by Student Council, it will feature the involvement of many different clubs and organizations. Consisting of groups such as Black Student Alliance, Spanish Honors Society, Bowie Buddies, Band, Silver Stars, JROTC, and more. While not all clubs can be included, Bowie U.N. has assembled a group with high involvement and broad impact around campus.
“We’re trying to create sort of a place for the leaders of a bunch of different important organizations around campus to kind of come together and kind of create a more cohesive community,” Student Council Co-President Reed Watts said. “Where you can kind of see what other parts of your community are working on as a team, and work together to accomplish similar goals.”
Bowie U.N. will meet once a month to discuss events around campus. Clubs can discuss new fundraisers and projects, and request any support needed from other organizations to help contribute to their events.
“With the Spanish Honors Society having a big following on Instagram, we can help by getting out the word to our members and promoting other volunteer opportunities for smaller clubs, like the Hope Club, and their sock drive,” Spanish Honors Society president Sara Lenahan said. “We try to let students know the benefits of doing these drives, and just promoting other clubs with all our members as a whole.
With there being many clubs throughout campus, smaller organizations struggle to gain the support and awareness they need. Bowie U.N. has a goal of eliminating the communication gap between students and helping to ensure each organization has a chance to promote its events.
“It’s been something we’ve been kind of thinking about for a couple of years,” Watts said. “We will see failed drives and throughout a lot of different communities, we just realized that if we work together and we could have a much more positive impact.”
According to Student Council leadership, the idea for Bowie U.N. had previously been in progress for multiple years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic led to its discontinuation. Co-President Gabby Bochey pushed for the organization to make a comeback.
“I remember when running for president, during my interview, we had to have a couple of ideas of things we wanted to bring to Bowie, one of my things that I wanted to heavily emphasize was Bowie U.N.,” Bochey said. “ I just kind of thought more about what it should be and more efforts that we should put into it.”
