USITT Student Chapters
What is a Student Chapter?
A Student Chapter is a group of peers, acknowledged by the national organization of USITT. Student chapters help to expand the reach of education beyond your school, to the world of theatre and the pioneers that continue to change our industry.
USITT Student Chapters are established to provide opportunities for students wishing to further their experience in technical theatre, design, and management through education, outreach, and networking.
What do students get from forming a chapter?
Examples of value
What is the difference between being a chapter vs just joining the national?
- Gives you access to knowledge on how to leverage funds and access to the national conference
- Tech and design expo
- Prague Quadrennial
- Building leadership skills and opportunities
- Activities
- Long term investment to maintain relevant in the industry
- Access
- Building a bridge between the university and USITT National
- Community gatherings for fun of like minded folks
- Friends, networking and jobs
- Structure beyond the class work to work on these tools
- Creates an Environment that facilitates student participation
- Professionally rewarding
- Resume builder
- Get hands on help to build opportunity
- Connection to work with the national educational outreach programing
- Opportunities to connect with other students in your geographical area
Testimonials
"When I discovered the wide range of professionals and organizations connected to USITT, I knew that this was an organization that I had to be a part of. Not only has USITT led to meaningful employment opportunities and connected me to amazing arts workers, I have found a "family" that encourages my growth and artistry. As our industry bounces back from the pandemic, I am confident in the future of my career because of the strong foundation and network that USITT has given me."
-Rachael Ellis
Allegheny College BA 2019
How to start a Student Chapter:
- Bring together a group of your friends and classmates.
- You must have at least six chapter members who are USITT national members. Students who are not USITT national members may also belong to the chapter.
- High schools only need the sponsor to be a national member.
- Identify a non-student national member who is willing to serve as sponsor and provide the chapter with active leadership and guidance. Many chapters have co‐sponsors (if so, both must be USITT members).
- Please check with your institution about required guidelines on forming a student organization.
- Hold elections to determine chapter officers or appoint interim officers. Required officer positions:
- Chair, Vice‐Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. The latter two offices can be combined into a Secretary‐Treasurer position.
- Write By‐laws for the chapter. Sample by‐laws
- Complete the Student Chapter application online. (See red button above)
- The National Office and the Membership Committee will review. If all requirements are met, a Charter certificate will be mailed to the chapter sponsor.
- Congrats, you are a student chapter of USITT!
Interested individuals may also attend a Student Roundtable meeting at the Annual Conference & Stage Expo or at an online meeting to obtain information. Individuals who wish to verify membership may check their account at usitt.org.
If any questions arise, please fill out this form.
Now what? Below is a list of ideas that we have seen other chapters successfully do over the years. In addition to this list we review ideas at the annual Student Roundtable.
Development:
- Resume workshops
- Master classes
- Attending conference with a group
- Registering a team in the Skills Challenge
- Providing students with information from national and sections
- Hosting events and monthly meetings
- Young designers forum, tech expo, and design expo support
- Create leadership opportunity to become an officer of a student organization
- Host workshops such as rigging, mask making, historic painting processes.
- Hold a tech skill competition
- Challenge a local school
- Work with your school’s alumni association to connect for local opportunities for tours, workshops, guest artists, ect.
- Volunteer to help after a natural disaster or for community projects in your area
- Working with another department in the school for a workshop. Example would be taking a mold casting workshop with the Art Department.
- Working with a local gear rental house to demo new and exciting gear the college may not have yet.
- In some cases they will lend out this gear for a discount or even free for limited days.
Fun:
- Pizza parties
- Movie nights
- Talent show (partnering with other campus groups)
- Drag show (partnering with other campus groups)
- Pumpkin carving design challenge
- Theater venue tours
- Local or touring shows backstage tours
Fundraising:
- Selling merch to students, faculty, and staff (be sure you have permission on any logos being used, such as your university's or USITT's)
- Offering clothing alteration services to community and school
- Requiring dues from students
- Yard sale by gathering donations from fellow students, staff, and faculty
- Haunted house
- Do a online donation drive with your schools fundraising department
- Work with your school’s alumni association to raise donations
Renewal
- Charters run for one year — October to October.
- Plan activities for the year — a mix of service to the department/profession, fundraisers to support attendance at the Annual Conference and social events works well for many chapters.
- Follow through on your plans and have fun!
- In spring, elect next year’s officers and send the President's contact information to the VP‐MSC.
- In fall, re‐check for six current USITT members, plan a new year of activities, and submit a Charter Renewal form.
- There should be enough interested students to sustain the chapter beyond any one academic year.
- Review your goals and don’t be afraid to change them. When looking at other chapters for advice keep in mind that each chapter is at a different place in their development and some goals may not make the most sense for your chapter.
Succession Planning advice
- Consider cross training on tasks between the officers
- Have a first year rep officer who is elected in the Fall. This sets up a person to be a future officer.
- Hold a meeting between the new officers and the past officers after elections to help pass along the knowledge.
- Check in with your advisor they will be willing or able to continue their support for your chapter in the upcoming term.
- Document the process of your events. What works, what did you learn to avoid next time, what were the costs and needs.
- Who did you contact for the venue, talent, vendor, etc.
- How did that relationship and communication work?
- Keep track of plans, drawings, inventories
- Who did you contact for resources
- Did you use name tags to identify leaders for the event
- What forms did you fill out?
- Finances/money storage
- Document how you pay for things?
- Signage/logo/branding guidelines archive
- Document your marketing process
- What worked and what you feel didn’t have an impact
- What is your school's policy on serving/selling food?
- What platforms did you use for an online event?
- What worked, login information, “how to” for users
- Even if you don’t plan to do the same exact event, there is always cross over value.
- Post event review and document your discussion.
- Who did you contact for the venue, talent, vendor, etc.
- Have a shared cloud or server file system that your advisor has admin privileges on
- Many schools provide file space as part of being a club
- Have a backup of your files
- Social media: Make sure you document your passwords and transfer ownerships to the new officers, and ensure your advisor has admin as well
- Reassess goals of the chapter at the beginning of each year. Don’t be afraid to change the format of what and how your chapter runs.
Sponsor/Advisor Guidelines
- Identify a non-student national member who is willing to serve as sponsor and provide the chapter with active leadership and guidance. Many chapters have co‐sponsors (if so, both must be USITT members).
- Please check with your institution about required guidelines on forming a student organization.
- We encourage you to have a co-sponsor for the student chapter whose schedule is offset as best as possible to yours. Often this means a staff and a faculty member share the workload.
- Make sure you are attending the officer and general meetings of the chapter
- Be supportive and go to events. Encourage your colleagues to come as well.
- family:Arial">To ensure the chapter is following the institution’s policies
- The chapter finances are properly handled and tracked
- Conduit to opportunities that USITT’s offers year around
- Help guide your students to know about and apply to the awards and programs USITT offers
- You are encouraged to become a part of USITT!
Student Chapters of USITT are organized across the nation in our colleges, universities, and high schools.
Comprised of six or more students with a sponsor, these chapters work to promote learning among their peers and to support design and technology on campus.
If you are interested in starting a student chapter, download the formation guidelines and application form.
USITT Student Chapter Information:
- Sponsor and Co-Sponsor must be USITT members
- Must have at least six USITT Student members
- Student Chapter Formation Guidelines
2024-2025 Student Chapters
Angelo State University
San Angelo, TX
Chair: Charlotte Branch
Sponsor: Rebekah Clark
Belmont University
Nashville, TN
Chair: Caroline Million
Sponsor: Amber Whatley
Boston University
Boston, MA
Chair: Grant Powicki
Sponsor: Renee Yancey
Central Washington University
Ellensburg, WA
Chair: Emma Barnes
Sponsor: Jerry Dougherty
Chapman University
Orange, CA
Chair: Kendall Conlisk
Sponsor: Josh Epstein
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO
Chair: Spencer Ammon
Sponsor: Erin Carignan
Connecticut College
New London, CT
Chair: Ethan Chin
Sponsor: Samuel Biondolillo
Crescenta Valley High School
La Crascenta, CA
Chair: Ashely Leavens
Sponsor: Ondina Dominguez
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
Chair: Aspen Lear
Sponsor: Shane Kelly
Fiorello H. Laguardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts
New York, NY
Chair: Evan Perazzo
Sponsor: Colleen Shea
Herbert Hoover High School
Glendale, CA
Chair: Marc Palanca
Sponsor: Robbie Myles
Humble High School
Humble, TX
Chair: Rafael Dominguez
Sponsor: Santiago Sepeda
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
Chair: Mads West
Sponsor: Trish Hausmann
Lake Travis High School
Austin, Texas
Chair: Karsyn Jacobsen
Sponsor: K.J. Bartosh
Logansport High School
Logansport, IN
Chair: Valeria Cortes
Sponsor: John Vales
Missouri State University
Springfield, MO
Chair: Gabriella Coambes
Sponsor: Michelle Harvey
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City, OK
Chair: Tess Rosen
Sponsor: Jason Foreman
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK
Chair: Owe Morris
Sponsor: Jason Estala
Park City High School
Park City, UT
Chair: Clarissa Fleming
Sponsor: Krischelle Hansen
Pennsylvania Western University California Campus
California, PA
Chair: Krystal Anderson
Sponsor: Sabrina Hykes-Davis
Portage Central High School
Kalamazoo, MI
Chair: Addison Burleigh
Sponsor: Jason Frink
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ
Chair: Sam Hiester
Sponsor: Thomas Fusco
State University of New York at Fredonia
Fredonia, NY
Chair: Dylan Janish
Sponsor: Czerton Lim
Texas State University
San Marcos, TX
Chair: Audrey McGovern
Sponsor: Cheri Prough DeVol
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX
Chair: Kaylie Jones
Sponsor: John Conner
Univeristy of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
Chair: Nick Feldmann
Sponsor: Emily Porter
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL
Chair: Robyn Farley
Sponsor: Robert Perry
University of Minnesota, Duluth
Duluth, MN
Chair: Katy Lacy
Sponsor: Scott Boyle
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN
Chair: Marshall Kelly
Sponsor: Jason Allyn-Schwerin
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska
Chair: Carolyn Nowak
Sponsor: Michelle Harvey
University of Rhode Island
Kingstown, RI
Chair: Samantha Tetzlaff
Sponsor: James Horban
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
Chair: Alexandria Muir
Sponsor: Duncan Mahoney
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
Chair: Alexis Charbonneau
Sponsor: Christine Watanabe
Utah Valley University
Orem, UT
Co-Chairs: David McKain, Sam Brockman
Sponsor: La Beene
Warren Central High School
Indianapolis, IN
Chair: Adrian Helms
Sponsor: David Melton
Western Illinois University
Macomb, IL
Chair: Adriene Grigsby
Sponsor: Josh Wo
UPDATED: 01/30/2025