Top 10 Reasons The Muddraker is the Best Club on Campus [not clickbait]

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Hi everyone! It’s Hannah again, back talking about one of my favorite aspects of Mudd: clubs! We offer a wide array of clubs here at Harvey Mudd, from Cheese Club and Barbeque Club to Adventure Club and DUCK!, our improv group. Check out the full list of charted clubs you could join on campus and a brief description of each.

Headshot of a woman smiling at the camera with her chin resting between her thumb and index finger

Hannah Larson, HMC ’20

This blog today is just focusing on one club that is near and dear to my heart: The Muddraker! The Muddraker is Harvey Mudd’s student newspaper and one of the best parts of my Mudd experience so I compiled a list of the top 10 reasons (in no particular order) why everyone should join.

10. People actually read the articles we publish online and in print! It’s really fun to walk into the dining hall after printing another issue and see everyone reading and discussing the content. My favorite part is going to morning classes with huge stacks of newspapers and passing them around for everyone to read.

LEFT: A photo of a laptop screen open to a twitter feed where someone has posted a Muddraker article titled Saying Bye-O to Core Lab. The photo says “WILD also apparently people read our online articles” RIGHT: A student wearing large sunglasses holds up an reads an issue of a newspaper

LEFT: A twitter feed shows someone retweeted The Muddraker’s article Saying Bye-O to Core Lab RIGHT: A student reads the April 2017 issue of The Muddraker

9. We print 1000 of each paper, so there’s plenty for everyone in your family (plus anyone else you want to impress, like your boyfriend’s parents or your high school college counselor).

LEFT: Two large side-by-side stacks of newspapers RIGHT: A small stack of newspapers

A stack of Muddrakers from February and one from October 2017

8. You get to know lots of cool people involved in printing papers, including the printers (who sometimes let us submit the paper late when we’ve been editing up until the last minute) and people in the Harvey Mudd communications office (who have great advice about creating a publication).

A photo of a tan building with a “Gardena” geotag. There is text on the image that says “This is where the magic happens.”

The building in Gardena where our papers are printed after we send them to the printer

7. You figure out all kinds of ways to advertise for the paper. My friend sent me this photo from Mod Pizza where an anonymous Muddraker fan wrote “Join the Muddraker!!!”

A red sticker with white text spelling out “MOD”. Around that are the words “Join the Muddraker!!!”

A sticker from MOD Pizza where someone has written “Join the Muddraker!!!”

6. We’re everywhere! This fall, during Harvey Mudd’s hardware hackathon, Muddhacks, we lasercut the Muddraker’s logo. We’re always looking for fun activities to do with our team members like boba or bowling!

Three wooden boxes with plexiglass “M”s standing on top sit on a table. Text on the image says “3:29AM”

Three laser cut boxes have The Muddraker logo in plexiglass on top

5. We have all kinds of different articles, depending on what our writers are interested in, including interviews with interesting professors (in a recurring section titled PROFiles), a playlist of pre-game songs chosen by Mudd’s football players, and a profile on all the different food clubs we offer at Mudd (see beginning of post for more on food clubs)!

LEFT: A smiling woman holds a fan of cards in her hand. The image is constructed to look like an ace of spades playing card. RIGHT: Two men lie on grass in different directions, with their heads next to each other, smiling at each other. The men are sharing two sets of headphones and wearing CMS Football sweatshirts.

LEFT: Professor Noquez (Mathematics) does magic in her spare time RIGHT: Two football players (Garrett Cheadle ‘20 and Jonah Cartwright ‘20) listen to music together

A piece of butcher paper with baguette slices in the center, and piles of small cheese cubes and slices of cured meats

A spread of bread, meats, and cheeses from a cheese club meeting

4. You can get free food when making ads for companies. Ads are also a great way to interact with the community and get funding to do cool things like bowling!

Two girls sit at a table and stare into the camera, surrounded by three cups of coffee and four types of ice cream.

Editor-in-Chief Rachel Schibler (‘20) and I eat a large assortment of ice creams and coffee for an ad

3. We play bananagrams!

LEFT: Many students around a table reaching toward game tiles in the center. A sleeve of oreos is located on one side of the table. RIGHT: Game tiles spelling “The Muddraker” in two lines sit on a desk

LEFT: Current students on The Muddraker and prospective Mudders play bananagrams and eat oreos together RIGHT: Bananagrams tiles spell out “The Muddraker”

2. You interview and get to know really interesting people at Mudd! We have a recurring article titled PROFiles where students can talk to professors about their hobbies, college experiences, and reasons for teaching at Mudd. Additionally, writers often interview students engaged in different aspects of campus life (check out our PROFiles articles on our website to learn fun facts from some of our cool professors).

An older man wearing a red sweater and three young women look down at a book in a professor’s office

Professor Van Hecke (Chemistry) ‘61 shows his interviewers some yearbooks from his time at Mudd

1. The Muddraker is like one big family! I love spending my evenings talking to other staff members about future articles or doing layout with my friends for our print publications. Every weekend, we get together to eat snacks and work on articles or just do homework together. Everyone is really nice and supportive of one another!

Fourteen college students on a lawn wearing identical red sweatshirts jump in the air

Most of The Muddraker’s staff members for the 2017-2018 school year celebrating the end of school