Since its inauguration this fall semester, ASCEND has grown to become one of the largest clubs in KAIST. With its ultimate goal to be an accessible home for anyone who wishes to enjoy sports, ASCEND hosts regular events across six main sports, open to all members regardless of their experiences or skills. In November, we met Taha Ahmed Khan, one of the founders and leaders of ASCEND.

What is ASCEND?

It’s an abbreviation for the Athletic Sports Club for Every Newbie & Devotee. ASCEND is a multi-sport club that is based in KAIST, and [it has] six divisions — futsal, basketball, hiking, weightlifting, cycling, and running. We have weekly events for every division besides hiking, which happens twice a semester for now. Occasionally, we host other events like kayaking.

Currently, are all members of ASCEND international?

Actually, we have a lot of Korean members [too]. Three of our [division] heads are Korean, and [the other] three are international [students]. We have a nice balance — [among the regular members, the proportion is around] 10 internationals to three Korean students. For now, we have around 100 members. We’re probably the biggest club in KAIST right now, if not the biggest ever.

What motivated you and the other two founders to start ASCEND?

Sabreena, Meesum, and I [were having] a friendly discussion [about how] only three out of 80 clubs actively recruit international students, which [is] very disappointing. And none of [the three] were sports clubs.

[So, we thought] why don't we include everything in the club? The next day, I woke up and I [asked] Meesum, “Where’s our team?” He got three of his friends, [and] I got three of my friends, who are very capable [of] sports, and we formed a core team. 

[Since] the end of June, we worked for two months on the idea because nothing on such a scale has ever happened before. We were thinking of how to coordinate everything [so that] none of the sports events overlapped — if somebody wants to participate in all sports, they can. We formed a semester calendar [for] each division and shared them, so we [had] everything ready until December. We [planned] to [hold events for] five sports regularly over the course of 12 weeks.

How does playing sports at ASCEND work?

[Every] Sunday, I make an announcement on what event will take place each day, and people can vote on [the] event [they want to participate in]. It is not mandatory for them to participate in every sport, [though] there are a few people who do.

We [also give] everybody the leverage to plan their own events. For example, if somebody [wants to play] basketball, they can just text in the group [to] tell us [they’re] playing basketball and ask [if] anybody wants to join. 

[In the] application form, we ask every member to select a core division that they're truly interested in. We [also] ask them what additional activities [they] are interested in, in case we want to form new divisions in the future like an Esports division.

What is unique about ASCEND?

To be very honest, I've been here for almost five years now, and I don’t think something like this has been done before in KAIST on such a large scale. Another thing that we noticed [was] very differentiated is our Instagram. We started creating short, attractive reels instead of just posting images. I think it helped us gain a large audience. [This was also planned], so we didn’t need to rush.

What is the spirit of ASCEND?

We have two slogans, “Connect without words” and “Play without excuses”. The major problem at KAIST [has been] the language [barrier]. We wanted to remove that language barrier, and we couldn’t find anything more powerful than sports. [Also, the club] is for “every newbie and devotee”, so the excuses such as “I’m too good” or “I'm just starting out” don’t work. 

What is the ultimate goal of ASCEND?

As a club, we want to be present for the international community not just at KAIST, [but] everywhere. Why not Solbridge? We are already in contact with people there. 

We just want to form something that brings together the international community, not just at KAIST. I know it’s a bit ambitious, but we were ambitious when we started the club — no [club has ever] had six sports in one club.