Student’s Sizzlin’ is a new student organization that emerged over the summer of 2025 and aims to “Spread the love of food from student to student.” Their mission is to build a community where students can trade recipes, learn quick skills and see food as more than just fuel.
Sophia Zhang ‘28, the organization’s president, is a sophomore who is originally from China and moved to America when she was five. She saw the difference between Chinese school food and American school food. She noticed that many students here don’t pack their own lunches, and if they do, they are not often nutritious or healthy.
“I wanted to find a way where students and student athletes would be able to cook nutritious meals that taste good for themselves, even if they’re in a rush in the morning, something they could get done making quickly that still can fuel them throughout the day, physically and mentally,” Zhang said.
This new student organization is a place where anyone is able to share their favorite foods with each other, regardless of culture, and everyone can learn from their peers.
“I love exploring different countries’ cultures through food,” she said, “and so I thought of a way that we, as a community, can share cultures with each other through our favorite quick dishes.”
When Zhang came to America, the way food in school was prepared in China was vastly different, featuring food that was filling and enjoyable to eat, compared to the US public school food that felt unappetizing. Zhang says, “In public school in the states, however, food became something I had to eat to survive, instead of something that is enjoyed.” This sense of dissolution eventually sparked the idea within her to create a club that reclaims joy, creativity, and connection from food.
She aims to create weekly Instagram reels by herself or with her friends, featuring her cooking food from various cultures, much like a cooking show. Her first reel, which she posted on August 24, was about creating a healthier alternative to energy drinks, as students are regularly seen drinking Celsius and other sodas offered by the campus store. Matcha is what she proposed, and the reel demonstrated a step-by-step guide on how matcha should be heated and whisked properly.
Zhang has also made another separate reel about how she should format videos for club members and viewers and whether they should be weekly Instagram reels or posts and even proposed the idea of a whole website dedicated to the club or a YouTube channel. Student Sizzlin’ overall is designed as a forum where anyone, regardless of their cooking experience or cultural background, is allowed to and can share their favorite foods.
Looking ahead, she envisions a vibrant community that will reshape how she and her peers view everyday meals, and that the organization itself will have a great impact on the student body.
