I'm a student at Kansas State University getting my BA in technical theatre, emphasizing in prop building. This will be my last semester, I'll graduate this December. I'm very fortunate to have many theatre professors who are steampunks as well. For my final in my special props class last semester, we had to build ray guns from scratch, using only found objects (or things found in the scene shop, but dumpster diving was also required). Extra credit if it fired! Mine did, it was a form of a cork pop gun. In a costume crafts class, we had to build an accessory, also out of only found materials (though second hand shops were allowed in this class) and I built my first pair of goggles.
Last year in September, I founded a steampunk student organization at my campus. It's open to anyone though, not just students, and we have about 30 members, though roughly 10 show up at every meeting, held weekly. To be honest, with a job, theatre productions and rehearsals, and classes, I sadly slacked off in my club duties so it hasn't been what I wanted it to be recently, but this coming year I hope to give it the attention it needs!
One lesson I learned is that you never know how many steampunks there are out there unless you look. I felt like I was taking a big risk in starting a steampunk club at my university, in the middle of Kansas, but at our first meeting we had 30 people come! I was amazed. I feel like if I have regular attendees of stressed out students who have a million other things to be doing on Thursday nights, any town can support a steampunk club.
