By Mimi Wells
Two Edgewood students plan to start a co-ed dance team by the end of the 2019 fall semester.
Junior Maddie Budner and freshman Maria Hamner got the idea for this student organization when they took a theater class together.
Budner said she wished Edgewood had a dance team, and Hamner agreed. Both of them have been dancing for years.
Hamner said she “almost didn’t come to Edgewood” because of its “lack of dance team.”
Hamner has spent most of her life dancing in a studio and on her dance team in high school. “Without it I feel like there’s . . . like this gaping hole in my life,” she said.
They described the type of dance they are going to do as a “jazzy pom,” which is similar to cheerleading but not quite the same. They plan to perform at Edgewood sporting events like basketball games. The team will be co-ed.
Process detailed
Creating a student organization is a detailed process.
The students (or student) interested in starting an organization have to have four members and an advisor (a faculty or staff member) to get the organization started and discuss their idea with the Office of Student Inclusion and Involvement, according to Director of Student Inclusion and Involvement Shaunda Brown-Rivera.
“A lot of what I do is extremely detailed because I want all of our organizations to be able to last,” she said.
Budner and Hamner have at least five people (including them) interested in joining their team.
The students have to have a name for their organization as well as a president and treasurer. Budner plans to be the president of the dance team and Hamner the vice president.
The most important part of the process is creating the organization’s constitution, which outlines how the organization is going to work and is to be brought out whenever there is a conflict, according to Brown-Rivera.
This constitution must include a diversity and inclusion statement. The coordinator of student engagement and leadership sends the constitution to the student senate for review and approval.
Start-up money available
After approving an organization, the senate gives it startup funds, but after that, it is up to the students to raise funds for their organization. “We do not provide funds to any organizations,” Brown-Rivera said.
Budner plans to use her business, Princess Parties by Pixie Dust, a business where she performs as princess characters at children’s birthday parties, as one way of fundraising for the team.
Budner and Hamner are still in the early stages of the process of creating the dance team, but they hope to get auditions set up by the end of the semester. They are not just looking for people with a lot of dance experience. “If you have a love of dance and you have potential and we see that potential and also stage presence, we’d love to see anyone come out and audition,” Budner said.
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