If you’re looking to meet new people on campus, clubs are the way to go. If you also enjoy tasting different cheeses, or are just looking for some fun post-April Fools Day, then the Cheese Club may be the place for you.
What started as a passion project in 2023 for three friends eager to sample cheese and meet people at DVC quickly became a social hub where students now regularly hang out over snacks, activities and games.
“I met so many people on campus that are really excited about the cheese club,” said Josh Gonzalez, one of the three founders. “It’s been an experience for me to kind of know that I’ve built something that has impacted a lot of people around me.”
The club meets in room A222 of the Arts Building every other Wednesday from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. The remaining meeting dates this semester are April 2 and April 16.
Club meetings are open to members and non-members alike. The Cheese Club’s first meeting of the year happened on March 19 and began with a 10-minute presentation describing the four cheeses being served: port salut, rutland red leicester, blue stilton and sweetheart white stilton.
In its presentation, the group covered the origins and qualities of the cheeses as well as the best side dishes or drinks to pair them with.
After the presentation, the club officers sliced the cheeses on their respective boards, with the recommended pairings laid out with them. Meanwhile, people were invited to line up and approach the table with the listed cheeses, snacks and drinks.
The cheeses were paired with salami, olives, dried fruits, crackers and an assortment of jams. They also had sparkling cider, cranberry juice and Power C to wash them down.
After grabbing the food items with tongs off the cheese platters, people ate as they socialized and enjoyed entertainment — from playing cards to board games, while others simply conversed.
Gonzalez, the appointed “President Provolone” of the club, is primarily responsible for leading the meetings. A third-year electrical engineering major, he said he founded the group in Fall 2023 along with friends Omar Mohamedali and Robin Adhikari, as a way of putting himself out more in the campus community.
“Starting the cheese club kind of boosted my confidence,” said Gonzalez. “I really challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone.”
As president, Gonzalez oversees the club’s project management, public relations and event coordination, while delegating tasks among its 15 officers.
“I would never consider myself a public speaker, but at the start of my meetings, I’d have to speak in front of the whole room,” said Gonzalez, recalling the club’s earliest days.
In their first semester, the group began with around 70 members. At the March 19 meeting, they recorded 130 people in attendance — close to double.
“It’s been an experience for me to kind of know that I’ve built something that has impacted a lot of people around me,” he added.
Two of the club’s first members run the meetings alongside Gonzalez, since Mohamedali and Adhikari have since transferred from DVC.
The club’s “Vice President Parmasian,” Sina Mirzai, joined after being convinced by Gonzalez, his best friend since the 7th grade. Mirzai, a second-year communications major, said his job is to essentially be the right hand man to the president, acting as a second opinion for decisions on events and management.
Mirzai is also in the Inter-Club Council (ICC), which designates funding to different clubs on campus. His knowledge on official fund applications provides the club with resources for meetings and events.
“I go by this quote all the time, every day, every minute: your network is your net worth,” said Mirzai. “Where you talk to, whoever you know, it doesn’t matter how much you know them at that moment, it matters how much they’ll know you one, five, ten years from now.”
The “Secretary Swiss” of the Cheese Club, Juan Pablo “JP” Miranda, is a second-year political economy major. He said he joined the club after meeting Mirzai in a public speaking class during his first semester at DVC, after moving to California from Peru.
Miranda said his primary responsibility every meeting is to write down the minutes, take a headcount, and log what occurs for the club’s records.
“For me, the Cheese Club is just a place where I can go to get to know a lot of people that really have a particular interest in common: cheese,” Miranda told The Inquirer.
“It’s really a social club where everyone can just go and find a community in this community college that we call home.”
All three of the current club leaders are in their last semester at DVC and expressed hope that the club Gonzalez co-founded three semesters ago will far outlast their time on campus.
“If for some crazy, wild reason this club succeeds, five or ten years down the road from now, and the Cheese Club just happens to still be a club, [a] shoutout to all the people who started the club,” Mirzai said.
“We started this thing expecting nearly nothing, and I’m glad to see where it’s come now.”