Music student starts sociology club

When junior Deborah Backman decided to double major in vocal performance and sociology, she said she felt unsure about how her decision would turn out.

Instead of taking her transition slowly, she founded Soc-IU, the only student sociology club on campus.

“I wanted to meet other people who were majoring in sociology and learn more about the field since I was getting into it so late,” she said. “I asked if there was an undergraduate club, and there wasn’t. That just started things and got the ball rolling.”

She said she felt starting a club would help sociology students network and discover different career paths and fields of study.

After finding a club sponsor with sociology professor Fabio Rojas, Backman began sending out emails and informing students in her classes about weekly sociology meetings.

“When we had the first meeting, I think about four people showed up,” she said. “We just talked about what we each wanted out of the club. We just got more and more people week after week.”

Along with having weekly meetings open to any students majoring or minoring in sociology, the club recently organized a panel discussion open to the public about social movements and the 2012 election earlier this November.

When Backman first expressed interest in starting a club, Rojas emphasized the importance of keeping one or two goals as the center of the club’s mission.

“No club can do everything,” Rojas said. “Choose one thing to do and really go for it.”
Backman has focused on spreading the word about meetings and getting as many sociology students involved as possible. Though she said she would like to organize more open panel events in the future, the club is still focused on providing sociology students with a peer-support system and networking resource.

Along with bringing in professors in the sociology department to discuss fields of research, she said she also plans to organize fundraising and community service events for club members.

“It’s gotten me a lot more excited about sociology,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how this club would go over, but the fact that people are really passionate about the club, it’s made me a lot more excited about the field.”

Though she plans to receive a sociology degree and continue on to graduate work in the field, Backman still takes music classes, voice lessons and even performs in IU Opera Theater productions.

Although she was accepted to the Jacob’s School of Music to study vocal performance and music education, Backman said she feared that a career solely in music would not satisfy her.

“I started to feel like it didn’t fit my personality,” she said. “But my (music) friends were very supportive. They knew I felt uncomfortable being a music education major for a while, and they saw how happy I was when I talked about sociology.”

While she continues to juggle music and sociology classes, Backman said she feels the club has helped her college transition run smoothly.

“It’s given me a lot more confidence that I came up with this idea, and people actually liked it,” she said. “I’ve learned more about things I never really thought about, and it’s challenging me to think in different ways.”