The clubs at ELHS have more in common than their diverse interests–they’re defined by their passions, goals and unique experiences they provide to their members. For Ryan Rosenthal (11), creating the Pre-med club was his way to bring aspiring healthcare professionals together. And Aya Howard (11), who formed Bird club, found it important to create a safe space for people that share the same interests as her. But regardless of their topic, many clubs have one goal: to form a sense of community.
One of the 12 new clubs ELHS has adopted this year is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). This club, which gains its name from an organization of the same name based in Kansas City, holds meetings where Christian athletes come together under a unifying belief system and shared athletic goals. They meet every Thursday in the Hub at 7 a.m.
“We don’t just do long talks,” Abbrey Gibson (12), a member of the FCA, said. “We have food, we have games, and we spend a lot of time with different communities.”
While the club is casual, the goal remains to inspire Christian ideals in its members. Every member gets a wrist band with four symbols that represent the gospel: the heart, to represent God’s love; the division symbol, to represent how sin separates; the cross, to represent how Jesus rescues; and the question mark, which asks club members if they will trust Jesus. Every week, the club discusses a different aspect of the bracelet.
Ultimately, FCA was created to provide a haven for Christian athletes, according to Gibson.
“There are a lot of athletes in East Lansing that don’t feel like they have a Christian community, so the goal of bringing FCA here was so that they feel like they have a safe space,” Gibson said.
Another club that was formed this school year is the Math Club. Created by math-enthusiasts, Elizabeth Ahlin (10) and Eleanor Hamlin (10), the club meets after school on Thursdays from 3-4 p.m. in rooms 211 or 213 .The two friends formed this club in hopes of bringing math into a new light for many people.
“I think [the club] helps people enjoy math more and not just think of it as what you learn in school,” Ahlin said. “It’s more creative, like problem solving, instead of just learning how to take a derivative or something.”
As of now, the math club plays games and solves word problems during meetings. But as they grow, they’re hoping to host an invitational for the MathCounts team, a competitive math club for kids in middle school, to prepare the team for chapter competitions beginning in February.
“Competitive math focuses a lot more on logic and [thinking] outside of the box, rather than things you’ve learned in classroom settings,” Hamlin said. “It’s interesting to see the different applications and how it can be done.”
The students in math club see their interests in a more positive light while working together in a group setting.
“It’s always nice to have people to talk about a shared interest with, especially something like math, where not that many people are really interested in it,” Hamlin said.
Every Sunday morning, Aya Howard (11) wanders through the woods with her binoculars, in hopes of spotting a speck of feathers. For some, this may seem tedious, but for Howard, birding is her life.
Howard created Bird Club this year to share her passion for birding with other people.
“I think it’s really important to find a community, and I didn’t have anybody like that, so I wanted to spread the joy of birds to other people,” Howard said.
Bird Club meets after school on the last Wednesday of every month in science teacher Heather Mueller’s room. During the meetings, club members play games, identify birds and use online bird tracking apps such as eBird and Merlin.
Ryan Rosenthal (11) created the Pre-med club this year as a way to share his interests and connect with students who are also passionate about the medical field.
“I’ve wanted to become a surgeon since I was in fifth grade, so I thought it’d be a good way to share my interests in the medical field with others,” Rosenthal said.
Club members get to participate in various engaging, hands-on activities that not only make learning fun, but interactive as well. Additionally, medical professionals come in and offer students an opportunity to learn and gain practical experience through the interactive activities.
“We’ve done medical-related activities like listening to heart sounds and had a physical therapist come in,” Rosenthal said.
Looking forward, Pre-med club has many exciting activities planned for future meetings, such as CPR training and hosting other medical professionals in the form of a workshop.
“We’re going to do CPR training in a couple weeks, and an orthopedic surgeon is going to come in as well,” Rosenthal said. “In general, if I raise enough money, I want to get fake stitches kits so people can practice that as well,” Rosenthal said.
By hosting bake sales, Pre-med club hopes to raise enough money to eventually provide more activities so club members can have a better learning experience.
Similar to other club presidents, Mila Thompson (10) started a club because she wanted to find people that shared the same interest as her, but in poetry. After discovering that Poetry Out Loud was an arts organization, she decided to incorporate it into school with a few changes that make the club unique.
Poetry Out Loud also provides a safe space for its members. Apart from the hard work they put into their writing, club members enjoy snacks every meeting, recite their poetry and practice public speaking.
“We make sure we always support each other’s ideas and never turn anyone down,” Thompson said.
Thompson hopes to potentially have a guest speaker recite poetry for the multicultural assembly and eventually have the club host and attend competitions.
