Joe Schneider forms a meteorology club
Kavahn Mansouri
– Editor-in-Chief-
For the past year STLCC-Meramec professor Joe Schneider had been trying to get Meramec’s newest club off the ground. Looking for a student who would take the necessary steps to start a club for students interested in meteorology and astronomy was one of his main tasks. Arielle Byington, a student of Schneider’s and president of Sky Club, was just that student.
“For me, personally, I had been thinking about doing this for a while because of the interest in the two fields of meteorology and astronomy for students. I can help students outside of class with different prospects for jobs, different careers, going to school after here, graduate school and stuff like that,” Schneider said. “With the club itself, I can do that to a larger number of people. I am really looking to continue the education of these two fields outside of the classrooms.”
Byington said that she was in Schneider’s class when the two started talking about the possibility of starting the club. She described the club starting as a “snowball” effect.
“I’m in Joe’s class right now, and I have a really high interest in meteorology. We just started talking about it and he had the idea of starting the club so we started filling out the paperwork and it sort of snowballed from there,” Byington said. “Now we’ve got the club so we have to come up with a plan for what we want to do and structure it a bit more.”
Schneider said the idea for Sky Club had been in his mind for a year, but only became a reality when Byington took the initiative to start the club.
“I needed someone to initiate the club and Arielle took the initiative to go do it. That’s really what it took, someone who had enough interest to go start it,” Schneider said.
Byington said that her main goal is to create a community for students interested in astronomy and meteorology.
“I want to provide students with the ability to take part in activities outside of school that further their education in both areas. I want to make it accessible and fun, enjoyable for them so it is not like sitting in a classroom,” Byington said. “I just want to give them the opportunity to spend time with fellow students and form a community.”
Byington said she wants to encourage Meramec students to get excited about astronomy and meteorology and the club is a great way to inspire students to get involved.
“One of our purposes is to raise awareness among the public and to help students understand weather phenomenon and astronomy concepts, and get people more excited about it and possibly encourage people to take classes in those areas,” Byington said.
Schneider said the club will host awareness days, answering common weather and astronomy questions.
“We want to do things like a severe weather awareness type day, a winter weather awareness type day. To get the information out there of what is a severe thunderstorm warning? What does that mean? What is a tornado watch compared to warning? What is sleet compared to freezing rain,” Schneider said.
Byington plans to use Meramec’s Club Days on January 25 and 26 as a tool to get students interested in the club.
“We’re going to give out information about the club, let people know what we want to do. We’ll have a better idea of what we want to do with the club, activity-wise and maybe field trips,” Byington said.
As for getting word out outside of Club Days, Schneider said he plans to take the word to the classroom.
“I teach 230 students a semester, so as far as getting the word out to just my students, if they were to join up, [it would] be a lot of students,” Schneider said.
Schneider said he and Byington already have several ideas for activities and field trips, including trips to different venues that house scientific professionals.
“As far as field trips, going to the local television station, going to the weather service, going to the planetarium, going to different places where people do work in the science field on an everyday basis,” Schneider said. “That can help people get a lot more answers as to what’s currently going on in those fields. That’s my main goal here, to help people out and have some fun too.”
Schneider said that he believes the club will be a great asset to not only students who join, but for the campus as a whole, by providing guest speakers and events around campus.
“I’m excited. I feel it will be good for the community. I can grab some guest speakers for the club, but I’m hoping to have guest speakers come not just for the club but for the campus,” Schneider said.
