New Student Clubs Take Shape at Masterman

This year, the beginning of extracurricular activities at Masterman has brought an influx of brand-new clubs started by ambitious students. The list of these new clubs includes Masterman Investments and Trading Society (MITS), the Fitness and Lifting Club, and the Eastern European Culture Club, just to name a few. The reaction to this latest wave of clubs has been mixed. Student Abdulaziz Madisakov (‘28), for one, feels enthusiastic about it, as he claims to be a member of approximately twenty clubs. “I choose my main clubs, correct? And so I attend them, but in case they ever get cancelled, I have a backup club, so I can just attend those instead.” 

Some other students are more critical of the new clubs. Aaryan Gada ('28) says there are “absolutely” too many. “I feel like everybody and their mother is starting a club now,” he jokes. Ironically, Aaryan himself is the founder of one such club—MITS. Aaryan believes his club stands well above the rest of the pack, though. “In our club, we talk about a real way to earn money,” he states, “whereas in a lot of other clubs and a lot of other places in the academic system, you’ll see you learn stuff that you generally won’t apply in the real world. But stock trading, investing, stuff like that is applicable for everybody, and it’s a good thing for everybody to learn.”

Another new club this year is Thrift and Give, or TAG. Founders Ali Hawkes ('28) and Matt Dubrouski (‘28) emphasize that their club is not a traditional one, which requires members to show up at meetings consistently or do very much at all. They tell us that “All one must do to support TAG is donate clothes, which can be made as simple as throwing an unwanted t-shirt into the bin that will be outside of the office.” Like MITS, they assert that their club stands out amongst so many others due to its practicality, declaring that “We clearly lay out the organizations that we want to work with, and we get out into the field to reach out to said organizations.” They also highlight the club’s communal spirit. “Supporting one’s community and uplifting its members is something fundamentally American, which is what the founding members of TAG hope to bring to the club.”

  Clearly, something about these clubs is compelling to many students; the MITS Google Classroom currently has 43 members, while TAG has 30. However, not every new club has had as much luck. Mariah Flores (‘28), founder of the Masterman’s Motorsports Club, reports that it has been a struggle to find members. Nonetheless, she stays optimistic about the inundation of new clubs, claiming that “the more things people have the opportunity to do, the better. If you can’t find what you want to do, you can always create what you want to do, and I think that’s really beautiful.” She’s not too bitter about the scarcity of members, either. She attributes it to people having their own independent passions. “I feel like it’s because there are so many things people already have that they want to do, that they haven’t really been able to branch out and explore other things.” She hopes for more members, so more can “have fun and share the beauty of racecars.” 

The future of these clubs remains uncertain. Which ones will fade into obscurity and vanish altogether, and which ones will stand the test of time, growing in popularity and becoming Masterman staples? Whatever the answer may be, one thing is clear: few are as hellbent on pursuing their interests as Masterman students.