From games to “girl power,” students have turned their interests into new clubs by creating three new clubs this school year.
The new clubs beginning to meet this year, Women’s Empowerment, Chess Club, and Ping Pong Club, have already received administrative approval, and another club is still in the process of becoming official.
Women’s Empowerment (W.E.) is the club Jackie Smolyar, senior, created. Smolyar teamed up with Jennifer Gira, English teacher, to create a place where girls can bond and raise their self esteem.
“One day I was talking to my friend about how another one of my friends doesn’t have a lot of self esteem,” Smolyar said. “That’s when I started thinking that there are actually a lot of girls who don’t have high self esteem. I thought it would be a good idea to have a club to bring all the girls in school together to raise their self esteem and help the Lake Zurich community.”
The club revolves mostly around activities that will positively affect girls at LZ, and even teach them how to do things they may not be able to do otherwise, such as a self-defense class, volunteer activities, a Charity Bash event, and even have a nutritionist speak to the group, according to Smolyar.
“I think that all girls need [this club], especially at LZ, so they can raise their self esteem and help the community,” Smolyar said. “Underclassmen girls can always use upperclassmen girls to look up to and talk to. Every girl needs another girl to confide in.”
W.E. is only one of the three clubs that began to meet this year.
Seniors Akshay Verma and Nick Lien founded Ping Pong Club, and Nic Geudtner, junior, founded Chess Club. All new clubs become official on a probationary status, which means that they can meet regularly, but the club sponsor is not paid, according to Ryan Rubenstein, assistant principal of facilities and activities.
“For the three years I have been in this position, there have been about three to five clubs added on a probationary status,” Rubenstein said. “There are not normally this many new clubs in a school year. The clubs add different opportunities for people to get involved in school.”
These new clubs are already official clubs at LZ, but one student is still in the process of making his official.
“The name of the club I’m starting is the Lake Zurich Lyrical Society. It’s basically a club where kids can talk about their favorite music and listen to music other kids are interested in,” Mark Solinski, junior, said.
Solinski is currently in the process of making the Lake Zurich Lyrical Society an official club. He has a sponsor, Megan Bajor, English teacher, and a lot of people who are interested, and now he just wants to make it official, according to Solinski.
“I thought it would be a lot of fun [to make this club]. I don’t think there’s anything like it already at the school,” Solinski said. “You have to commit some time to [making a club], but if it’s something you enjoy than it’s not a big deal.”