High school is extremely stressful. Many people want to do well to set up for their future, but being constantly busy can make you burn out. Extracurriculars, such as sports, are a way many high schoolers stay involved. Consequently, factors like transportation to games or almost constant practice can get overwhelming, and may not be fit for everybody. There is a lot of pressure on the people playing, and a constant reminder and expectation to win.
Here’s where clubs come into play. As somebody who wants to be involved as much as possible, but can’t get access to transportation constantly, this is a great alternate way to be involved. Clubs are typically held at the school, with some exceptions, and aren’t held daily. If it’s something scheduled ahead of time, it’s easier to get transportation to and from it.
A bonus to joining a club (or multiple!) is that colleges and universities will look for people involved with the school. It shows your dedication and commitment. So you get to do something you enjoy, and it makes your transcript look better? Sounds like a deal to me.
At Fargo North, there are a wide variety of clubs to join, whatever your interests are. From clubs where you’re involved with the community to those that are simply for fun, there’s bound to be something that’s right for you. However, there are almost too many options, and it might be hard to know ahead of time what to do. I talked with some of the organizers of clubs to give a better idea to those who are unsure but interested.
Spanish Club is just one of the options North provides for extracurriculars and is organized by Julie Parrow, the Spanish teacher. While it is about Spanish, a lot of their activities are unrelated to the language. “We’ll do Spanish related activities, sometimes we’ll just do activities to get together in a group of people who are in Spanish,” said Parrow. Its purpose is simply to get together and have fun. Even if you don’t speak Spanish or aren’t currently in the class, it’s still something you can participate in and enjoy. There were a wide variety of activities they have done, “Our latest one was a Saran wrap ball,” which is more of a competition-like activity, competing to see who can unwrap the saran ball the fastest. They’ve also done some creative activities without competition. “We did rock painting one time and sticker making.” These are some of the fun, unrelated to Spanish itself projects that they have done in the past. However, they also do some that are related such as, culture Kahoots. Learning about culture is an important topic, Spanish related or not. They’ve also attempted to tie the cultural piece into cooking, but were thwarted by a snow day. Which is something they would most likely incorporate into the future. Overall, the Spanish Club has a lot to offer with little requirements.
It usually depends on when they meet, but, “We usually do it a Friday before school or we’ll do it a Wednesday afterschool.” A plus with the morning meetup is that transportation isn’t a huge problem, as you’ll already be in school right after anyways. They are looking for new members to join, “We’re always looking for more people to come, and it’s always fun to bring a friend!” You can try it out and easily back out if you don’t enjoy it. On the other hand, if you do enjoy it then you have something somewhat school-related to do that is also fun. Double bonus!
Art Club is another club at North that allows you to be creative and is organized by Tracy Melendez, one of the art teachers. They meet up consistently on the same day, so planning ahead would be very easy to accomplish. “We meet every other week on Wednesday afterschool,” said Melendez. One of my personal favorite parts of the club is that you get to take home whatever you make. It’s a relaxed environment because of the flexibility in what you create. Their projects are short and sweet, so there’s nothing to wait for if you’re impatient. “Typically the students complete the project on the same night. So they are projects that last anywhere from an hour to two hours.” Whether it’s painting pots or making something small with clay, you get to create whatever you want.
It’s also an opportunity to socialize and talk with the other members. They do hardly any traveling besides an occasional field trip, “We did not this year but we typically do a field trip to Minneapolis in the fall.” Which is an one-of-a-kind experience to take a break and relax as you get to miss out on school. Cheering! While there are barely any requirements, “There are $5 art club dues, and that helps pay for some of the art supplies.” While it goes all year long, you can join anytime during the school year, especially if you’re already involved in sports or theatre activities.
Eco Club might be just right for you if you want to help save the environment in fun ways. It is run by Keisha Blaser, an English teacher here, and there are around 70 people signed up. People might recognize the club from when they do succulent sales! Their meetings are pretty regular, with being notified ahead of time on Canvas. “We meet as a whole group once a month and as a board once a month. So, twice a month total.” During these meetings they sometimes do activities and primarily discuss during the group meetings to make things such as posters and plan events to spread awareness.
Eco Club’s purpose is “Raising awareness in both the school and other schools in the district to just be more environmentally friendly and safer,” as explained by Blaser. They do, however, do a little bit of traveling for volunteer work, which may require transportation. “We’ll meet for doing things such as litter pickup, or getting succulents ready and preparing what’s going on at the time.” A message from Blaser herself is that: “You don’t have to be super passionate about the environment or know a lot about it to join.” It’s also for anybody and there’s fun activities and events to participate in.
The final club that I’ll be introducing is FCCLA (Family, career and community leadership of America)! It is one of the newer clubs, only having been around for three years. It is mostly independent besides they meet “Typically once a month [..] typically on a Wednesday after school. “
FCCLA – run by Mrs. Eberhardt and Mrs. Hart, the FACS teachers at North – provides an excellent way to develop individuality and a leader role. Mrs. Hardt describes the benefits of joining this club, “They do the projects really by themselves, we just help where needed. Kids learn how to take initiative and independence.” This independence creates leadership skills, which are applicable to real life. There are competitions that FCCLA does and is a sole part of their club. “In FCCLA it’s called STAR events, so you can do any type of project that has to do with housing or fashion or children or foods projects.” They compete at a district level, after which you can go to state. If you advance on from that you can then go to nationals!
There are fees, especially going into the state or national level, but also for food costs during meetings. They can also use this money for financial assistance, which is a great plus. FCCLA encourages people to join and try it out! Mrs Eberhardt expands on reasons to join. “It’s still pretty new so we definitely want a lot of students to be involved, cause it’s more fun when we can do more things.” They also would be able to do more activities and get more people to be involved with the school. This isn’t the only club with competitions, as JCL (Latin club), Knowledge Bowl, Debate club, and Speech club also have competitions, which could be a fun experience.
While these are only some of the clubs available to join, there are plenty of other options as well! There are so many different activities and there’s a lot more flexibility compared to joining a sport or theater, if that’s something you’re not prepared for. Either by doing something just to be creative or doing volunteer work to feel involved with the community, there’s plenty of ways to stay connected with the school.
So give it a shot, even if you aren’t sure, because in the end you can always back out. On the other hand, if you enjoy it, you get to do something for fun and feel like you are a part of something special.