The Fall 2016 semester started with a lot of exciting things for Mercy College; with the building of the new dorms and the restructure and re-vamping of PACT, the College is undergoing some drastic and exciting changes. These aren’t the only changes we are seeing on campus, there seems to be a particular change in school spirit. This year, students seem to have more school spirit than ever. This can be seen through several things like the attendance of students at on campus events as well as an increase in student involvement in clubs.

This year there were many new clubs waiting to gain membership by eager to be involved students. However, along with some newer clubs came some older ones hoping to make a come back. Amongst those clubs were GLOW UP and the Mercy College Video Game Club.

Angel Cespedes, founder of the club and former student government president, started the Video Game Club last school year with one major purpose: to entertain the gamers at Mercy and to build a community of gamers in the Westchester area. Like many other clubs, the Video Game Club had a rough start its first year. According to Cespedes, this is because it was under little to no management due to his busy schedule. The Impact caught up with Cespedes to talk about the clubs first successful season and to see what else he has in store for its future.

The Impact: When did you first establish the club and why video games?

It’s simple really, I love video games and I think everyone does to an extent. The club was first established by myself last year but had little to no activity because there was little management. This year with more time on my hands I took ownership of the club. The reason I am running the club this year is because I want to entertain the gamers on campus and build a community of gamers in the Westchester area.

The Impact: Some of our readers who are interested in the club probably don’t know where they can find you guys, where do you guys operate? Do you have weekly meetings?

At the moment we operate mostly from the Dobbs Ferry campus but we sometimes run events in the Manhattan campus on a bi-weekly basis. We try to spend a descent amount of time at each campus because we know their are gamers at both Manhattan and Dobbs. We don’t really have meetings because its more of an event club.

The Impact: We know that the club had a rough start last year, but this time seems different. Have your events proven successful? What do you think has changed?

Our events have been successful, we have had over 20 students at each event and expect to keep growing. Our events in the Victory Cafe are only the tip of the iceberg on what we have planned. I think that much of this is due to our heavy advertising of the clubs events. We have placed posters on both Manhattan and the Dobbs Ferry campuses. We are also constantly posting content on our social media pages, this way students can stay updated with us.

The Impact: Have there been any major obstacles for you guys since starting back up?

Fortunately, there have only been ups. Many people have reached out in interest and we have gained many likes on Facebook and followers on Instagram. The only challenge has been not doing more events. It’s my senior year so I am very busy with work and classes. However, I am planning on expanding the e-board to receive more help and expand our resources.