While many University students are engaged in academic clubs concerned with their major or future career, members of the U.Va. Cereal Club reject the seriousness associated with most extracurricular activities in pursuit of something they love — cereal.
Founded in 2021, the Cereal Club joins an abundance of recreational clubs at the University, from the Chocolate Milk Club to the Clash of Clans Club to the Swifties Club, that unite students over silly shared interests.
Tanish Gupta, vice president of milk and third-year Commerce student, emphasized that the Cereal Club's goal is not to rival these clubs — as that would be antithetical to their mission to build community — but rather to offer students an enjoyable way to meet others and explore their passions. There is no application to join, and anyone is welcome to attend meetings.
“We're not competing with [other niche] clubs,” Gupta said. “I think, especially at U.Va., people see clubs as something very competitive and sometimes career-driven. [But] you can also just be in clubs for fun … you can join these clubs, not because you see it as a vital progression in your university career, but just because you want to have fun and relax.”
Since its founding, the club has sought to bring together the wide demographic of cereal-loving students on Grounds. During their monthly meetings, the club hosts a variety of competitions and activities — from taste tests to simple get-togethers with Cheerios — fostering a community of cereal enthusiasts.
Over the last four years, the club has experienced highs and lows in terms of attendance and active participation. However, the club’s president, third-year College student Will Hancock, has begun to revamp club membership and event-planning since assuming the presidency at the end of last spring. The club had no active non-executive members when Hancock was awarded the presidency — after competing in a contest to write the best cereal haiku.
“[We] had always felt like Cereal Club could do more,” Hancock said. “Between the people I got to be on exec, we had this broad group of friends from different parts of U.Va., and so part of the idea was to bring those people together.”
To maintain consistent attendance, Gupta said the leadership team has tried to make meetings interesting by assigning a theme to each gathering. During one of the club's most well-attended recent events, members were tasked with distinguishing name-brand and store-brand cereals. The club’s executive team set up various types of cereal in 1515, and they asked participants to attempt to blindly taste the difference between the brands — a challenge that many members found difficult, despite their collective passion for name-brand cereals.
After initially just reaching out to friends in the spring, Hancock and other executive members witnessed the club expand to more people within the University community. Hancock said that more students across grade levels began discovering the Cereal Club through Student Engagement and attending meetings with friends.
“We were pleasantly surprised by how many people showed up and were interested,” Hancock said. “Then, that kind of snowballed, and we started getting outreach from random people in the community ... So, the initial push [to get members] was not as organic, but through the fall, people were hearing about the cereal celebrations.”
The revamped meetings have attracted many students who are interested in a fun, low-stress environment. Third-year Engineering student Thomas Ackleson joined the club as it was being reinstated this year, and he said that he was initially skeptical that the club would be able to sustain itself, given its somewhat ridiculous nature. However, Ackleson said that he truly enjoys the silly, lighthearted nature of the club — qualities that keep him, and others, coming back for seconds.
“Obviously, you think [Cereal Club] is kind of a joke, but I thought it was interesting,” Ackleson said. “After going to the events, I thought it was a good time, and [participants] knew what was going on. I think [the taste test] was ironic by nature, but in the same way, it allowed people to relax and enjoy the event for what it was.”
Despite accruing initial interest pretty easily, Emmett O’Brien, vice president of cereal and third-year College student, said one of the main difficulties to sustaining the club has been amassing enough funds to host events. Fortunately, the club has obtained some support from the U.Va. Parents Fund after originally struggling to receive food-related funds from Student Council.
“[Student Council] is sometimes hesitant to fund food in particular, which is clearly one of [Cereal Club’s] major things,” O’Brien said. “So, we’ve done a lot of work with the U.Va. Parents Fund, which has generously given us some funding.”
According to Ackleson, the rather low funding amounts have created some logistical issues. Ackelson said that the club hasn't been able to buy a variety of milk options for meetings, nor been able to buy cereal bowls for their members.
“The lack of milk really was a problem — [my girlfriend] couldn’t enjoy the cereal in the same way that she would like to,” Ackleson said. “Then, the other big problem is that you have to bring your own bowl to every event … it’s kind of a pain to haul around a ceramic bowl.”
Despite these challenges, Hancock believes the universality of cereal will allow the club to continuously attract new members. Given the low stakes required to join the club, Hancock said members find it easy to open up and embrace the funny atmosphere of the meetings.
“Everyone’s tried cereal, and everyone has their own opinions on cereal,” Hancock said. “It’s a super accessible club … part of the beauty of the club is that anyone can just show up.”
Looking to the future, O’Brien hopes U.Va. Cereal Club can continue to provide a foil to more transactional, resume-building clubs and attract members for a simple purpose — getting to know one another over a bowl of cereal.
“I think it's important that people come into this environment [to] just sit down, have your bowl of cereal, and not [expect] any big obligations,” O’Brien said.
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