Ian Stoops ʼ28 wasted no time fully immersing himself in campus activities at William Peace University.
In fact, Stoops didn’t even wait until he started classes before he began visualizing how he could be active at Peace.
Owen Jones ʼ28 remembers being with Stoops at orientation and hearing his friend map out a plan to start a game design club.
“It was kind of weird hearing that at first,” Jones said. “Like, you just got here and you already want to start a club? But it’s worked out so far.”
Stoops and Jones each transferred to Peace from Wake Technical Community College. While Peace was a new experience, both immediately knew they wanted to take advantage of all the extracurricular opportunities available to them.
“Wake Tech had those opportunities, but I was sort of hiding from them, I guess is the best way to put it,” Stoops said. “I’m a little shy, so I saw coming to William Peace University as a way to crack open my shell.”
Stoops and Jones are both from Fuquay-Varina and attended classes at the Southern Wake Tech campus. Even though they are local, joining clubs and organizations as soon as they arrived made Peace feel like home. Both Stoops and Jones joined the Ethics Bowl team.
Stoops quickly found a leadership role on campus, going to Roger Christman, department chair of art, communication, and simulation & game design, to inquire about starting the game design club. A similar club previously existed on campus, so Stoops essentially gave it new life. Jones, his buddy from orientation, followed and became the treasurer. Once Stoops received approval from Student Life, he sent out emails, set up club rules, wrote a constitution, and officially restarted the club. Twenty students attended the first interest meeting. Stoops also joined the cosplay club at Peace.
Stoops and Jones quickly found their community through starting the game design club, allowing them to jump right into a built-in group with shared interests.
“People are really interested in the club,” Stoops said. “And I’m really interested in having people there. Being the president of a club and talking to other simulation & game design (SGD) majors, talking to people who are interested in that, it’s been really exciting.”
Giving Back to the University
Stoops and Jones are both majoring in simulation and game design. Joining the Ethics Bowl team, which is usually full of pre-law majors, was another way to become part of the Pacer community. Scott McElreath, professor of philosophy and ethics bowl coordinator at Peace, noticed two things: they both sat up front and were engaged in discussion every day.
He recalls approaching Stoops about joining the Ethics Bowl and Stoops’ unique response.
“The way he put it was, he wanted to give back to the school,” McElreath said. “I could see that from a senior, but I was I surprised to hear that from a transfer student. He wanted to give back to the University by contributing to the club. Plus it allows him to immerse himself in college.”
Jones said he “just took my classes” while at Wake Tech, but like Stoops, he wanted more out of his college experience once he arrived at Peace. Stoops took advantage of the Peace Pathways partnership with Wake Tech and found the transition to be a smooth one.
Stoops earned his associate degree from Wake Tech last spring and enrolled at Peace in August. He never imagined the transfer process would be as easy as it was, so once it was behind him, he set his sights on what he could do outside of the classroom.
Even though Stoops and Jones are SGD majors, McElreath thought they would be perfect additions to the Ethics Bowl team.
“It does require a certain amount of creativity and problem-solving,” McElreath said. “SGD majors tend to have those skills. It’s cool that they are willing to do it.”
So far, it has been a successful venture.
“I’ve liked the communication aspect of it,” Stoops said. “When it comes to ethics and trying to find an answer, it’s always going to be a collaboration. It’s problem-solving, it’s teamwork. You get to work with everyone, and they are working with you to come up with the best answer. I love that aspect.”
The Peace Ethics Bowl team had a historic finish last winter, so their reputation preceded them. Only one member of last year’s team returned, which means Stoops and Jones are learning the ropes together with a group of other fresh faces.
It’s all part of the experience — and one that Jones values.
“If you’re worried about getting to know people, I would suggest doing stuff like this,” Jones said. “If you’re a transfer student and you’re worried about coming here by yourself and not knowing people, you should do extracurricular things to get to know people.”
