When I stumbled into Benson frantically looking for Morgane for our interview, I heard Morgane yell from across Benson, “Hey Blake! I’m here!” At that moment, I instantly began to appreciate Morgane’s outgoing, sociable personality – it sure enough saved me from an awkward stroll through Benson trying to figure out who she was. Morgane is a senior from Plham, New York, and will be graduating this May with an art history major and Chinese minor. My guess is that she is fluent, since she took a language pledge that she would only speak Chinese during her 4-month study abroad – no big deal. Besides being a trendy, Chinese-speaking New Yorker, Morgane Chang is working hard to bring an amazing new club to campus, the “Roosevelt Club,” to serve as her final mark on Wake.
You’re probably wondering what exactly the Roosevelt Club is. First of all, it’s not going to be a bunch of FDR groupies meeting to gush over how great he was. It’s more of an initiative to continue his legacy of taking direct action to improve the quality of life for others. The founder of the Roosevelt Club, Andy Rich, happened to be a Wake professor and told Morgane about an amazing conference he attended at FDR’s library near Hyde Park.
The conference was a two-day event for students from all over the country who had an established chapter or were trying to found a chapter at their respective universities. During the conference, the students made a list of things they would like to see happen by 2040, such as reducing carbon emissions, legalizing gay rights, and the like. A self-proclaimed cynic, Morgane said that the amount of optimism that came from the other students was so overwhelming that it was enough to change her mind. She said actually started to believe that “anything is possible” and that afterward she came back with “stars in her eyes.”
It was this conference that inspired Morgane to start a chapter of the Roosevelt Club at Wake Forest. Penciling in some time into Morgane’s busy schedule, I got the scoop. Chapter can be proactive on local, state or national scales – from planting trees to working to reform their state’s energy policy to submitting ideas to the formation of a bill. Wow. National officers are helpful with composing grants and making network connections. Pretty legit, huh?
So I was (and I’m sure you are) dying to know if the Roosevelt Club is a legitimate club on campus yet. Morgane explained that the national Roosevelt organization recognizes Wake’s chapter as legitimate; however, due to the long and complicated process of applying to be a WFU organization, it is not yet officially sanctioned by the school.
After apologizing for not yet getting involved (which will happen stat!), I asked what the club here was currently up to. Right now, the club is in the planning stages of putting on an immigration awareness event featuring the “Dream Team,” which is a phenomenal organization in North Carolina that works to provide undocumented immigrants with equal opportunities and better quality of life.
Notably, besides helping to solve all of the world’s problems, the Roosevelt Club helps you get in the know with what’s going outside the “Wake Bubble.”
“It is so hard to leave the ‘Wake Forest Bubble,’” says Morgane. “And I regret waiting this long to do something that is outside of Wake.”
Another bonus to this club? “It’s past the political rhetoric thing,” affirms Morgane. Translation? Both donkeys and elephants are more than welcome, and all that a person needs in order to join is the passion to help solve social issues.
*Photography credit to freshman Karleigh Ash