Jennifer K. Westhagen '01, the society's treasurer and social attache, cites similar reasons for joining the group. Her family lives in a large Scandinavian community in Seattle.
"There you can walk down the street and hear people speaking Scandinavian languages," Westhagen says.
Westhagen studied Scandinavian dance as a child and says her father watches Norwegian television on an international channel at home.
But Schauss stresses that the club is not just for people of Scandinavian descent.
"Our events are open to anyone who's interested, whether or not they want to join [the Society]," she says. "I don't think most of the people in the club are Scandinavian."
Schauss notes that Block and Chiappa, the club's vice president and secretary, are not of Scandinavian ancestry.
The club has one member from Finland and one member from Iceland, along with several members who "were born in America, but [Scandinavia] is still part of their heritage," Block says.
Group leaders say even though members are not necessarily Scandinavian themselves, their club is an ethnic one.
"The whole point [of an ethnic organization] is to raise awareness of the culture and spark people's interest if we can," Schauss says.
"That should be the point of all cultural clubs," Block adds.
Carving a Niche
Group members cite a variety of topics they wish to address through the group.
Several of the club's members expressed disappointment that Swedish is the only Scandinavian language taught at the College, even though Scandinavia includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Westhagen says she is concerned with breaking down the conception held by the general public that the Scandinavians were supporters of Hitler. She says Scandinavian literature was influenced by the Nazis, but in actuality the king of Denmark at the time, and in fact many Scandinavians, were vocally opposed to anti-Semitism.
Chiappa says she hopes to explore the strong family bonds she observed in Sweden. While visiting some Swedish friends from high school, she says she noticed a "deep respect and love" among the people.
She says she was also struck by the closeness of extended families, who often live near each other. "I found that was really nice because my family is kind of scattered all over the country and the world," she says.
Schauss says she hopes to hold events at least twice a month.
The group meets Thursdays at 7 p.m., although it will not meet every week.
The group plans to hold celebrations of Scandinavian holidays including the Swedish St. Lucia celebration which occurs near Christmas, Finnish independence day in December, and Morten Gos, a Swedish holiday in November "where they eat roast goose," Schauss says.
Groups leaders also look forward to more movie nights, with films from such directors as the Swede Ingmar Bergman and Jorn Donner, a Finn.