The kickoff of a new school year is an exciting time for MCPS students. This is a time for inspired students to establish clubs about topics they are passionate about. Last school year, RM occupied 134 clubs ranging from the Women in Stem to the Rock and Metal Music Club. This year, students with unique ideas for a club rushed to present their ideas to a potential sponsor. Today, we’ll pinpoint a few of the freshly launched clubs this 2022-23 school year.

Junior Hana Mahdood decided to launch a chapter of Language Learners International to celebrate the school’s diversity and teach foreign students to love their language and culture. 

“I hope LLI becomes an active club and provides students with a comfortable space to talk about their uniqueness and differences,” Mahdood said. 

Her goal for the club’s first year is to obtain at least 25 members and collaborate with other organizations with similar visions. 

“Those who are interested in executive positions are more than welcome to apply. Position applications will be shared through social media and during our first meeting which is estimated to be sometime in December,” Mahdood said. 

Another freshly-launched club is the Stretch Club, created by senior Claire Chen and junior Heather Wang. Both dancers, the two have combined an interest and a desire to reach out to the community. 

“We want to use stretching and flexibility as a way for people to relax and clear their minds,” Chen said. 

Activities they have planned for the club include guided stretch routines, meditation sessions, yoga and opportunities to learn how to do the splits. They look forward to hosting events including fundraisers and purchasing equipment for club meetings to enhance member experiences.

“We will be having an interest meeting after the club fair,” Wang said. “There will also be a Google Form and email list.”

Sophomore Maelie Chavez started a Hispanic Student Union this year to help Hispanic students feel more included within the student body. 

“I noticed there was a lack of representation for Hispanic students, as opposed to many other racial groups of students having representation clubs,” Chavez said.

Many students feel that they lack representation within their school and are unsure of how to change this stigma. 

“Thankfully, the club creation process wasn’t very difficult for me. I found a teacher that … had a room available at the time I wanted to hold a meeting and got the club application form from the counseling office,” Chavez said. 

On the other side of the spectrum, sophomore Ilana Vainstein began the Calligraphy Club this year.

“I thought it would be fun to start a club, and my friends and I like calligraphy,” Vainstein said. 

To start the club-making process, students must first find a teacher to sponsor them. From there, they can apply for the club to be created within the counseling office. 

“It was really confusing at first because the information was all over the place. But once we got a sponsor and registered our club, it was pretty straightforward,” Vainstein said.

The calligraphy club plans to meet every other Monday with a variety of activities. 

“We plan to bullet journal and do calligraphy. We’ll also have community service activities like stationary funds and writing letters to people,” Vainstein said.