Howard University Student Grace B. Kalere Is Building a Social Club That Gives Students Access to New Experiences in The DMV

There is a version of a night out that ends with nothing but a receipt, and there is a version that opens a door. Grace B. Kalere built State of the Party to chase the second one. He looked at all the energy, spending, and community that students and young professionals pour into the DMV every weekend and asked a simple question: what else could that same energy unlock?

Kalere is the founder of State of the Party, a Washington, D.C.-based social club rethinking nightlife and community investment for students and young professionals across the District, Maryland, and Virginia. He is a rising third-year student studying International Affairs and Economics in the Honors College at Howard University. What began as an observation about the region’s nightlife economy has become a fast-moving platform that has already put thousands of dollars back into students’ pockets, secured corporate sponsorships, and grown a following in a matter of weeks.

The DMV has one of the most vibrant social scenes in the country, fueled by dense corridors like Dupont Circle, U Street, Shaw, H Street NE, and Georgetown and by a young population anchored by Howard University and students across the region. Kalere’s insight was not about any one venue. It was about where all that momentum could lead next. He noticed that participation in spaces tied to long-term opportunity, like golf, tennis, and wellness environments, stayed limited, often because those spaces have historically asked for a kind of cultural familiarity or financial comfort that many people were never extended.

He is candid about how the current math can feel for a young professional. “What used to be an affordable release: a night to dance, sweat, and reset before the work week, has become a performance of status that drains wallets without offering much in return,” he said. The bigger idea, for Kalere, is that a night out and a new opportunity do not have to be separate things. That gap, between the energy the community brings and the access it gets back, is the one State of the Party was built to close.

Rather than leaving the idea on a slide deck, Kalere started running State of the Party as a live, community-first experience earlier this year, and every event is designed to place members inside a room they may never have been invited into. The club has hosted a golf outing that brought new faces onto the green, many for the first time, and gave away more than $5,000 in golfing gear. It has held sunrise group yoga at the base of the Washington Monument, a sunset run club through the District, and morning hikes with more than 50 free pairs of shoes to try on alongside $2,500 in free hiking gear. A tennis meetup drew more than 100 participants, and a World Cup watch party brought people together for networking and connection.

The vision keeps expanding. Kalere hopes to host a cabin and ski trip, events on Martha’s Vineyard, a polo outing, and even water aerobics, widening the map of what young Black D.C. gets to experience. The throughline is intentional. These are the same adjacent spaces, the golf courses, tennis clubs, and wellness environments, that his business names as historically hard to reach. Instead of a single night out, State of the Party is building recurring access to rooms its members were rarely invited into.

According to Kalere, the early numbers back up the mission: more than $25,000 in secured corporate sponsorships and over 500,000 views with 50,000-plus accounts reached through his marketing.

For Kalere, the thesis fits in a sentence. “If for them, why not for us?” he said. “Nightlife should send you home richer in more than just memories, the whole point of State of the Party is proving that a night out and long-term community investment don’t have to be separate things.”

What comes next may look a little different. “I want to learn how to run a business, and long-term it hasn’t been the most sustainable to be a community organizer,” he said. “So I want to explore a paid membership option or ticketed events.” For a founder who has spent the year proving that a night out can also open a door, that next chapter is worth watching.