The first meeting of the Order of the Falcon Club took place on campus Monday, Sept. 8, in the Teleconference Center.

Like any other club on campus, Order of the Falcon participates in school activities, philanthropy and even competition, but with a twist.

The club’s theme is based off of the critically acclaimed literary and film series, Harry Potter.

Janet Parga, club president, started the meeting off by having everyone introduce themselves while giving returning members an opportunity to speak a little about the club.

Parga led the meeting with her plans for the semester; and the plan on being involved within the Cerritos College community and the overall Harry Potter community.

The club is not simply dictated by Parga; everyone was asked to give ideas for activities and ways to get involved with the community.

She said, “It’s really about helping out everyone, just like helping out the students here on campus and obviously going out and helping the community.”

Countless colleges around the world have created a club based off of the Harry Potter series, and this is the second semester that this club is active on campus.

“I thought leading the club was going to be a little difficult because last year was the first year that the club was actually active. But I noticed that there’s actually a lot of Harry Potter clubs around the nation,” Parga said.

She added, “I actually Googled some ideas and thought it was smart to implement them, and that’s why I was asking everyone for feedback.”

The club plans on participating in the Homecoming festivities and any events happening on campus.

After introductions and ideas were shared, the club’s members were divided into house-groups, just like in Harry Potter.

If you aren’t familiar with the Harry Potter – The magical sorting hat chooses what house a student will live in while they attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry depending on their character.

While in the meeting, the club members took the Sorting Hat Quiz to determine what group they would be placed in: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.

Also derived from the story, each house will gain or lose points depending on the participation of its members.

The integrated point system seems to encourage new member Leslie Pedroza, mathematics major, to participate as much as possible.

“I like the idea that they’re trying to do competitions within houses and also bring people together,” Pedroza said.

Pedroza continues,”I’m such a big fan of Harry Potter, and it’s awesome to get a group of people with similar interests and you can incorporate unique ideas into these activities.”

New clubs members were excited to begin participating in all the festivities, and it was announced after that the Order of the Falcon Club will even have its own Quidditch team.

The Quidditch team, like any other team, will go through practices and compete against other schools.

The Order of the Falcon Club meets every Monday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in room LC-155.