NRCA held its first-ever high school Club Fair during homeroom on Friday. Starting with seniors, each class in the high school division rotated through the main gym, where clubs set up information booths staffed by current members who answered questions about participation requirements, activities and projects.
“I think it’s really good to get a description of every club that’s going on, and it’s really a fun opportunity to see to see all the clubs that we have at school in more depth,” junior Natalia Pugh said as she talked with representatives of Youth and Government.
Megan Jacobs, a junior also, joined Pugh at the display. “I’ve learned more about YAG. I’m in Speech and Debate, and I’ve always thought about YAG. Now seeing it, I’m excited to do it,” Jacobs said.
Math teacher Mrs. Amy Dean coordinated the event. “I came up with this idea last year because I saw that there was a deficit of younger students in our club. I realized they just didn’t know about it,” said Dean, who advises the Culture Club.
In previous years, NRCA opened club registration online, and students signed up for the clubs that interested them. No centralized event allowed students to interact with current members to see what clubs were about before joining.
“I thought it’d be a good idea for all of our students to be able to learn about the clubs firsthand before they sign up because we really want kids to be interested in what they’re going to and really get engaged,” Dean said.
Clubs represented at the inaugural Club Fair were Castle Crazies, Chem Club, Culture Club, eSports Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), HOSA: Future Health Professionals, National English Honor Society, Photo Club, Robotics, and Youth and Government (YAG).
Student leaders for each club prepared in advance for the fair. “All the leaders got together over the weekend and made a display. On the poster, we explained what our club is all about and how if you participate for two years, you can get a pin at graduation. We included all the fun experiments that we have planned,” senior Faith Zawadzki said.
Zawadzki is part of the leadership team for the Chem Club, NRCA’s chapter of the American Chemical Society Chemistry Club. Chem Club is open to juniors and seniors. Mrs. Cindy McInnis is the adviser. “We would like students to join us as we do our outreach activities. We have an elementary science event for the kids in the wintertime, and we also host a huge blood drive each spring that benefits our community greatly,” McInnis said.
Each high school club gives members the chance to explore an area of interest in depth. Many clubs offer service opportunities too.
Campus Life oversees middle school and high school clubs at NRCA. “The reason North Raleigh has clubs is multifaceted, but really [our philosophy for clubs] lands in two of our major directives as a school, the first of which is to foster community among our students. We want our students to have an opportunity to build relationships with their peers centered on common ground or a common interest,” said Josh Leonard, Campus Life Director.
The second reason is to give students a venue for developing their areas of interest. “A lot of our students have great passion for very many things. God has gifted them in a lot of different ways, and we want to see them grow and develop those passions in ways that impact their community, not just here at NRCA but in our surrounding community and eventually the world. So the clubs that we have are really intended for them to be able to develop those passions in pursuit of glorifying Christ through what they’re doing,” Leonard said.
Click here for more information on NRCA’s middle school and high school clubs.
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