As NC students continue to excel in their classes, they search for options to fill up their college resumes and personal reputations. NC offers students a broad variety of clubs and extracurriculars that apply to a diverse array of interests. Although these opportunities exist, a portion of clubs face flimsy attendance. Among these, Poetry Club, American Sign Language (ASL) Honor Society, Acworth Young Alderman, Collective Hope and Mythology Club welcome students passionate about their respective focuses.
Poetry Club, run by junior Eli Pothier and sponsored by World Literature teacher Spencer Jordan provides students with a perfect place for self-expression and creative outlets. The Poetry Club meets from 3:45-4:45 every Wednesday in room 703. Using a variety of visual and textual prompts, club leaders push members to fully unleash their creative and literary capabilities. In addition, this club provides song lyrics for students to analyze and teaches students different styles of poetry including sonnets, ballads and odes.
“Poetry Club is very important to me because I believe in developing a voice. It makes me so wholeheartedly happy when people come into the club. At first, they don’t want to talk or share, but soon they gain confidence and use their voice. This is my purpose for the poetry club,” Pothier said.
ASL Honor Society, sponsored by ASL teacher Ms. Teschke focuses on the language. The club’s representatives welcome students who want to enrich their knowledge of ASL or volunteer to help the deaf community such as signing the national anthem at football games. Studying ASL allows students a variety of college opportunities, such as scholarships. In addition, the club participates in an annual literature and art competition.
AYA Club focuses on how young adults can impact the government. This club dedicates itself to students who express interest in local government systems and provides opportunities for community service hours for members. Run by government and sociology teacher Samuel Fraundorf, AYA meets the first Wednesday of every month from 3:30-4:15 PM.
Collective Hope meets each Tuesday morning at 7:45 in room 3054. Collective Hope focuses on Bible study, in addition to various service projects. Sponsored by algebra and calculus teacher Deepa Steephen and run by Addie Hill and Nadia Guthrie, the club reads Bible passages in order to hold group discussions about scripture, praying together based on previous prayer requests. Overall, this club provides a safe community for people interested in Christianity who want to incorporate the religion into their lives.
Although NC clubs may struggle with full attendance and popularity, sometimes these issues bring about the end of the club entirely. For example, the former club focused on creative writing named “NC Creatives,” run by AP Literature teacher Rebecca Zavala, ended due to too few members. Mythology Club, on the brink of extinction, focuses on all types of mythology and literary stories. For example, the club collectively reads myths, and fables and discusses literature.
“I met a lot of people at the Mythology Club, and it’s a great place to learn about mythology because I really enjoy it. We learned about Norse Mythology, which is really interesting because when you think about mythology you think of Greek. It’s a great place to learn something you don’t know yet about mythology of all types,” magnet sophomore Dalyah Arauz said.
Overall, participating in NC’s clubs brings only positives. Clubs provide opportunities for students to express their interests and dive deeper into them. In addition, NC provides the kindest communities for students to create long-lasting friendships. As NC seniors graduate, they look back at the awards they received from club memberships and positions, and do not regret it.
