If you knew me, you’d know that approximately 50% of the things I say have something to do with Colleges Against Cancer (CAC), so I might as well get a blog post about it out of the way!
Steve Conversation Topics
I’ve been in CAC since freshman year, and this year I’m the president, so it’s super exciting, and has been a great challenge and learning experience for me.
We’re most well known for planning USC’s Relay For Life, which is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, put on in communities internationally every single year! At USC, we typically raise around $100,000!
Our opening ceremony, featuring Zack Jerome of Lost Angeles, a Cancer Survivor!
Relay For Life is a 24 hour event where students form teams with their clubs, greek houses, friends on their floor, or co-workers, and we invite survivors from both the student body and the surrounding community to share their stories. It’s always super inspirational and fun at the same time. We have some moving ceremonies, and we also have a DJ, student bands, a capella groups, improv comedy, competitions, and MORE! Typically, around 2000 students come through during the course of the event. Everyone sets up tents on the track, right on campus, and we camp out. It’s an amazing event because it is one of USC’s largest philanthropic, completely student-run events (if not THE largest), and we reach out to the entire student body, including grad students, and even faculty/staff.
We also have fun shirts!
Honestly, if you’re looking for a good time and want to make a difference – this is the event for you!
CAC does a lot more than plan Relay For Life though (even though it takes a whole year to plan!). During the fall, we hold cancer-education events on campus, and have an active advocacy committee. So far we’ve distributed sunscreen at football games to help prevent skin cancer, and we’re trying to partner with the administration to give student input on the possibility of making USC a smoke-free campus. Soon we plan to have a shade tent on Trousdale, the main street on campus, to further help prevent skin cancer (can you guess what September’s theme is?). October we are planning lots of fun events for breast cancer awareness, and in november you’ll be able to see me on tommy cam in a giant cigarette costume helping spread awareness of lung cancer facts.
Can you think of a better way to fight lung cancer?
Anyway, as president, I’m in charge of making sure all our members (appx. 80) have a great time working towards our cause and have something to contribute. We try to keep the meetings fun (we sorted new members (“first years”) into committees (“houses”) using a sorting hat (“sorting hat”) with some sick dubstep hedwig theme remixes in the background. We also celebrate birthdays for all our members, so we almost ALWAYS have funfetti cake!
CAC Ski Trip!
Being on the executive board in a club at USC is a great way to enhance your undergrad experience, and really feel like you’re making a difference on campus!
