GOTF club aspires towards “unity, excellence” by ensuring success of children
Stepping into the Generation of the Future club last Thursday was like entering a youthful hotspot with a nightclub atmosphere. The sound of dubstep music blasted from the nearby stereo, and the immediate vibe was one of enthusiasm and fun.
Freshman Trae Smith, a Political Science/Communications major, founded the club this spring semester as a way to rid society of everything detrimental to its wellbeing and to ensure the success of its future leaders—its children.
“We like to help the community, but our true mission statement is to help children grades K-8 with free of charge tutoring, fitness-friendly events, and economically friendly events,” Smith said.
The club has already participated in various community service activities, such as a video shoot with children and a beach cleanup, and it has an upcoming event with Tree People to plant trees to help improve the condition of the environment.
GOTF has reached out to elementary and middle schools in the area and plans to hold assemblies all over the Santa Monica, Malibu, and LAUSD school districts in order to promote their cause.
“In the fall, Generation of the Future will just get bigger, bigger, and bigger,” Smith proclaimed. “We plan on expanding to colleges all over the country.”
As Chief of Communications Officer Marcus Otsi described, GOTF is unique in that it holds team unity to a standard just as high as community service, and that team bonding is even essential to the club enacting its goals.
“We are focused on helping out community, but we also want to create strong team cohesion because part of the club scene at SMC is to be social and to get involved not just with our community, but with our fellow students,” Otsi said.
In this week’s meeting, all members were present to discuss their upcoming community service hike at Runyon Canyon and a “team activity” that would take place the night before, which was themed “bad costume ideas.”
The hike was postponed due to the team activity’s late ending as well as student preparation for finals, but according to Chief of Marketing Ryan Downer, the team activity was “a massive success” in that most of the club was present to enjoy the theme and brainstorm strategies for team recruitment and promotion of their cause.
“I chose GOTF because I was inspired by Trae Smith's - our president's -leadership and vision. His charisma honestly got me very excited, and he is very ‘hands off’ in terms of giving my department autonomy to pursue whatever we want to improve the club,” Downer said.
Although a brand new club on campus, GOTF seems to be settling in soundly and commits itself to achieving “unity and excellence.”