Outta WAC club founders pour passion into class project

Think back to the time when you entered the college application
process and AP classes, varsity sports and involvement in millions
of clubs just didn’t keep you busy enough, or so the college
admissions officers believed. This is a few-month period that
everyone tries to block from their memory, and yet still has
occasional nightmares about it.

Now imagine additional essays and live tryouts to get into your
dream major. However frightening that may sound, it is the stark
reality for the lucky freshmen entering UCLA as World Arts and
Cultures majors.

Third-year WAC student and founder of the Outta WAC club
Francine Maigue knows how hard it is to be successful as a WAC
major and still have time to complete the basic requirements
demanded of regular first-years at a major university.

“The idea that we get off with an easy major is one of the
biggest misconceptions of WAC students. We work just as
hard,” said Maigue. “My first year I went with a GE
cluster and we have all the other English and foreign language
requirements that everyone else has.”

In addition to the traditional classes from both sides of
campus, WAC students take a broad selection of dance classes in the
studio which prove to be physically and mentally taxing as
well.

“For us the dance classes are a big deal because we have
to be in great physical shape as well,” said Maigue.
“I’ve also never been in a dance class where we
didn’t have to write a paper.”

WAC also provides distinctive opportunities for the students to
express themselves. For example, when WAC students Maigue, Melissa
Fong, Lindsey Scott and Olivia Wong took WAC 45 their freshman year
and were given as their final assignment, the vague instructions to
“do something that would change the class,” the Outta
WAC dance club was the result.

“We had auditions and successfully cast an amazing group
of 20-25 dancers. It was such an astonishment to be asked to
perform for activities on campus, when you don’t really
realize your company is even getting noticed by others. It’s
a really rewarding feeling,” said third-year Wong.

Outta WAC has become extremely successful since its beginning
three years ago, performing at activities including Homecoming
2003, Bruinfest 2002, Children’s Walk for Life, SAA Senior
Send-off and various other events around campus.

“It’s been a lot of fun working with these girls,
and it has given us all the opportunity to enhance our knowledge on
how a company works and the effort it takes to make one
happen,” Wong said. “You become very close to the
girls, and it’s truly a connection you don’t usually
make with other people on a day-to-day basis. You share the same
interest and passion in dance as the other girls in the company,
which is a really warm feeling.”

Designing a club such as this can pose obstacles when it
involves balancing twice-a-week practices as well as meetings with
outreach programs and keeping up to par with the GPA requirement,
thus showing the high amount of responsibility necessary to be
successful. But it was an innovative way to turn a little
project into something so popular.

“(We) were looking for something that would change the
class and change the future,” Maigue said. “And I got
an A.”