At commuter schools, college sometimes feels more like a place students attend rather than a community they claim. Students arrive for class, navigate crowded hallways and lecture halls, and leave to return to their lives outside campus. Between work, family responsibilities, and long commutes, finding time to build meaningful relationships is difficult.
Classrooms bring students together academically, but they do not always create the same opportunities for cultural expression and friendships to develop.
When I watched Lena Khan’s 2026 Netflix comedy film Best of the Best, about a South Asian collegiate dance team, I didn’t expect to analyze the movie any further than just the plot. Instead, I kept wondering what it meant to see students come together around something connected to their culture.
As a South Asian student, that idea felt familiar. It made me think about the spaces students look for beyond their classrooms and whether those spaces are given enough importance.
After only about two months at Hunter College, I am still figuring out what college is truly meant to feel like. One thing I quickly noticed is how easy it is to fall into a cycle of going to class and going home. In high school, social interaction was often built into the day but college is different. Dozens of students can sit in the same lecture hall without ever speaking to one another. Even with hundreds of people around you, that does not necessarily mean you have found a true community.
That is where student organizations matter. They give students a reason to keep showing up and interacting with a group of people that eventually become their community.
A 2026 study published in Educational Studies, “Communities in Transition: Asian American College Students’ Perspectives on Belonging,” by Xinyi Zhong, et al, focused on six Asian American students transitioning from high school to college. Although this small study examined academically selective four-year institutions, participants defined belonging through self-expression, shared identities and values, and everyday connections.
For several students, cultural and racial affinity spaces fostered a deep sense of belonging. One participant built closer connections after joining an Asian dance group, an experience that reshaped how she valued her ethnic identity.
This intersection of culture and activity distinguishes cultural organizations from how campuses typically view or treat them. They are not just another extracurricular to add to a résumé instead students learn, practice, perform and spend time together.
At Hunter, Ghunghur, a South Asian dance club, is one of the many clubs that allows for this. Jerin Tasnim joined hoping to make friends, never expecting dance, to become something she loved.
“To me, Ghunghur is more than just a dance club,” Tasnim said. “It’s a place where I found friendship and a real sense of belonging.”
Shravanti Ray, another member, echoed that sentiment, explaining that the club gives students something to look forward to beyond classes and exams. Through rehearsals, performances and time spent together, she has made friendships with people she might not have met otherwise.
For Kripamoye Biswas, who helped create Ghunghur, that sense of community was intentional. She and her friends wanted to recreate the welcoming dance environment they had experienced in high school and make it accessible to students from diverse backgrounds and varying levels of experience. As a no-cut club, Ghunghur allows students to learn without feeling they need to prove themselves first. Its value lies not only in performances, but in creating a space where students can connect, try something new, and feel included.
Hunter’s Latin American Student Organization LASO, offers a similar sense of community.
Kaylie Carpio described joining as a freshman with no expectations and finding a group that made settling into college much easier. For her, the club became a place to meet lifelong friends and find a sense of family.
As a first-generation Peruvian American, she also emphasized the importance of sharing her roots through dance, food, and music. These traditions allow students to celebrate their cultures while introducing others to the diversity of Latin American heritage. LASO welcomes students from all backgrounds, creating opportunities to learn about different cultures and connect with others.
However, cultural belonging presents complex challenges. Not every student grows up with a deep connection to their heritage, and many struggle to find their place upon entering college. Some may want to explore an identity they previously had little opportunity to understand and others may feel caught between different parts of their background.
In Zhong and her colleagues’ study on Asian American college students’ sense of belonging, one participant questioned his connection to his Taiwanese heritage because he did not speak Mandarin. Sharing a culture on paper does not always mean feeling at home in real life.
Instead, cultural spaces can give students room to figure out what those identities mean to them.
That is part of what stood out to me about Best of the Best. The dance team is not simply a group of students who share an activity. Its members navigate familial expectations, friendships, romantic relationships, and the responsibilities of college.
College often gets messy. Students navigate disagreements, endure difficult conversations, and shed a few tears along the way. Yet, supportive peers show up to ease the overwhelm, sometimes bonding over nothing more than a shared plate of tacos.
These spaces become ore than a place to practice and perform they become somewhere students can lean on one another, show their trueselves and build relationships beyond the classroom. That is what cultural spaces can offer: not just a connection to culture, but a sense of belonging as students figure out who they are and who they want to become.
At Hunter, this matters because we are primarily a commuter school. Classes alone cannot bridge the social distance on a crowded campus. Although no club fits every student, routine spaces help familiar faces gather and build organic relationships.
In a classroom, I am primarily there as a student. I take notes, complete assignments, participate in discussions, and eventually take an exam. Outside that classroom, I am also a person with a culture, family, history, and experiences that shape how I understand the world.
Higher education often measures what students gain through grades, credits, degrees and careers. Those measurements matter, but they do not capture everything students experience in college. We are also becoming more independent, meeting new people and figuring out which parts of ourselves we want to carry forward.
Therefore, campuses cannot treat cultural spaces as optional activities reserved only for students with extra time. The goal is not to make everyone join a cultural organization. It is to make room for students to find communities where they feel like more than a name on a roster or an EMPL ID.
Classrooms can teach us what we need to know but the spaces outside them can help us figure out where we fit.
Think back to the final scene of Best of the Best: childhood best friends Maya and Anjali continuing their tradition of getting Taco Bell after every performance. It is a small moment, but it captures what makes college meaningful beyond the classroom: finding your people and creating little traditions together.
So after your next exam, grab a friend and start a tradition of your own!
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