By Maire Crooks, The Current News Editor
New fliers and announcements have recently been spotted decorating the halls throughout the school featuring new clubs here at River Hill, such as Hawk Connections, Cancer Kids First and the Storm Club.
Julia Baek and Alicia Spooner are the co-founders of Hawk Connections. Their club is focused on easing “the difficulty new students face as to adjust academically and socially” by “match[ing] new students with current members of River Hill based on common interests,” as Julia describes.
Julia explains their reasoning for creating their club: “We both wanted to find ways to get more involved and to make a positive impact on our school. Knowing that there are a ton of different clubs already at River Hill, we wanted to create a club that would fill a need in our school.”
Veer Tuliani is the founder of the Storm Club, a group who learns about meteorology, “teach[es] those interested in meteorology about amateur meteorological skills, connect[s] with professionals in the field to aid those interested in careers in meteorology, examine[s] the impact of weather on our society,” and much more.
“I came up with the idea for my club because I am really passionate about extreme weather events and how to forecast them, and [I] wanted to spread that knowledge to other students,” mentions Veer.
Teni Adejana and Stephanie Moses co-founded Cancer Kids First, a club that keeps childhood cancer patients in mind. Unlike Julia, Alicia and Veer, their inspiration for the group came a little differently. Teni voices, “We got [our idea] off of TikTok. We saw it and we thought it would be a fun idea to help kids with cancer.”
No matter where their idea stemmed from, many of the founders agree that starting their club was surprisingly simple. “We had to first figure out the logistics of our club like what exactly we would do, how we would get things done, and what the commitment would look for members,” explains Julia. Teni articulates: “It was pretty easy… the only harder part was just making presentations and getting all of that stuff together for different meetings.” After coming up with an idea and finding a sponsor, new groups must fill out a Google Form from the Executive Board SGA to make their organization official.
However, Veer had some minor challenges: “It was hard to spread the word; despite having social media as well as flyers around the school at my disposal… it was still pretty hard to get a decent member turn-out at my interest meeting a couple weeks ago.”
It is important to choose the correct sponsor for the club; the teacher must align with the founders’ vision for the group. Julia says that she and Alicia “naturally gravitated” towards Ms. Browne because they “remembered how Ms. Browne goes out of her way to build community in her classes.”
Although Veer “felt like there were definitely limited sponsors this time of year with many of them having their schedules full with coaching sports, spending time with family, or sponsoring various other clubs,” he ultimately chose Mr. Boothe for similar reasons.
Organizers must also get along with their mentor. “We chose Señora Souidi because she is so nice and she is one of my favorite teachers,” Teni elaborates.
These clubs are brand-new, so they are recruiting new members. Julia says, “If someone is interested in joining our club, they would need to fill out a Google Form which will ask them questions about their grade, sports and extracurricular activities they participate in, and any other interests they have.” Their Google Form can be found on the Hawk Connections Instagram.
To join Cancer Kids First, potential members should “go to Señora Souidi’s room and scan the QR code in her room” to fill out the Google Form to join.
Students who are interested in the Storm Club can “get in contact with [Veer]… by social media or email,” although Canvas messaging is preferrable.
Overall, all of the founders hope that their clubs create a lasting impact on the student body and leave the school better than they found it.