Looking for a Club? Three New Clubs Provide Students with New Opportunities

History Club

Members of the History Club, seniors Sylvia Afanador and Keira Deal along with juniors Miller Hining and Isaac James discuss current events with each other. The club has a focus on past events that still affect people today, but there has been a recent shift to focusing more on current events. Discussing current events allows students to stay updated and informed about issues in local, state, and national politics. 

Due to a lack of participation, the History Club had to stop meeting regularly. However, with the work of senior Aimee Griffiths and her fellow officers sophomore Andrew Larsen and senior Delilah Wurth Hobbs, the club started having meetings again at the start of this year. Meetings are on every other Friday from 7:50 to 8:15 a.m. in Mrs. Wilson's room. 

"This summer, I came up with a bunch of ideas for our club to try to revamp it," said Griffiths. "We're going to join the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association." 

Being part of associations outside of the high school shows a greater importance and success for the club. The importance of a club is something that can be a make-or-break factor for getting participation from students. With the growth of social media and political polarization within teens' social lives, politics has become a complicated subject for students to discuss with peers.  Having a club within the high school that fosters discussion on current and political events is something that is increasingly helpful for students.

"I love history, and I think this is a great way to get more engaged with history and to spread the love of history," said Larsen. "I think history is a very important thing to learn about."

Letters for CeCe

Letters for CeCe club officers include juniors Sofia McEvoy and Zoe Critcher, sophomores Ella Hudzik and Lorena Peviani, along with senior Sofie Peviani. These officers led the club's second meeting of the year. Letters for CeCe was created by the Peviani sisters, who wanted to create a club that has a deep connection to their grandmother and the memories that they have with her. Members write stories and poems about any topic of their choice. The stories are typically about a specific seasonal memory or response to a book or other form of literature.

The club meets every other Tuesday in Ms. Decker's room to discuss current stories that members are working on, volunteer opportunities in the community, and time to work on their pieces. Members of the club travel to nursing homes to read the residents their written works.  Writing stories for family, friends, or other people in the community allows students to think outside the box and create a piece for someone else. 

High school students lose touch with the practice of writing and reading their own pieces. Letters for CeCe provides the time and opportunity for students to write an original work and get volunteer hours when reading it at the nursing homes.

Asian Language Club

Juniors Isaac James, Bella Battern, Naomi Smith, and Maggie Smith,  practice Chinese words and play an online game to memorize numbers and basic greetings. The Asian Language Club has a focus on Chinese and Japanese but invites all members to share vocabulary and sayings from other Asian languages that they know. They meet at 7:45 a.m. on the first Tuesday of every month in 

"We started this club because we all study Asian language and we wanted to help foster a community at the high school of people who are interested in studying Asian language," said James. "We want to grow school interest in Asian language overall. "

Getting participation can be hard for this club since there aren't many students at the high school who speak an Asian language. However, having a club focused on it brings these students together. The school does not provide an Asian language class, which makes it hard for students new to the language. Despite this obstacle, the club still has 10 or more committed members who are actively trying to learn or practice an Asian language. 

"It doesn’t matter if you don’t know an Asian language because we can give you the opportunity to learn one," said Naomi Smith.

Asian Language club officers are perpetually trying to get more people to join the club, reach out to them for other learning opportunities, and spread information via word of mouth. 

"We post on social media a lot, collaborate with the Asian Culture Club, and in the future, I hope we can give more people the opportunity to study their chosen language," said Naomi Smith.