With a 419-acre campus and more than 35,000 students, UCLA may seem like an overwhelming place. But students can personalize the campus and find their niche through groups that focus on topics as diverse as chess, Russian, robotics and salsa.

Some of these groups are based on common religion, others on common ethnicity, and others are based on common interest.

Go Fish!, UCLA’s student fishing group, plans two or three weekend fishing trips per quarter.

On these excursions, students unite through “a love of fishing and being social,” said Matt Schneider, a third-year business economics student and the founder and president of Go Fish!

Students carpool to lakes up north where veterans share tackle and supplies with newcomers.

“My most memorable experience is when a newcomer catches their first fish,” Schneider said. “You just can’t replace that feeling.”

For some students, becoming involved in a club provides a place to meet students with similar interests and greatly influences their time at UCLA.

Darryl Shiraishi, a third-year mathematics student, is going to be an officer of the Delta Terrace Residents Association on the residence Hill.

“Within DTRA we have each other’s backs. ... We all support each other with whatever events we decide to plan,” Shiraishi said.

In the area of fine arts, UCLA has groups as diverse as “Fem•in•art,” which explores gender in art from a feminist perspective, and “Music to Heal,” an on-campus group that serves senior citizens by using music as a form of healing.

Where students have not found groups to fill their particular need, they have formed their own.

Last year, second-year business economics student Sasha Hoffman founded Bruin Bellydance, a group whose purpose is “to spread the art form of Turkish and Egyptian belly dance to students in the form of a dance team.”

After Hoffman obtained sponsors and trained during the summer, she was able to venture abroad to compete.

“I toured all over Greece and Turkey and it was very fun,” Hoffman said.

Though Hoffman is an advanced dancer, she said she enjoys teaching beginners.

Students also tackle world issues beyond the campus through political and humanitarian activism with groups such as Bruin Republicans, Amnesty International and Bruin Democrats.

Last year, Amnesty International, a student group whose goal is to inform and educate students at UCLA about human rights concerns, tackled issues ranging from child trafficking to minority rights.

“(Amnesty International) has made me more proactive as a student. It has made me realize that even on campus there is work to be done,” said Smitha Srinath, a fourth-year biology student and the co-president of Amnesty International.

Another avenue of involvement some students choose to pursue is volunteer work.

One program that has grown in the past five years is Dance Marathon, an event in which students stay awake and on their feet for 26 hours in order to raise money for pediatric AIDS research.

“There’s just so much spirit associated with Dance Marathon. ... It’s a lot of camaraderie,” said Isidro Mariscal, a fourth-year history student and the associate director of Dance Marathon.

“It let me find a home at UCLA and a family I can go to.”