Once again, club day has come and gone. As usual, most clubs gained a few 100 new members … who they will never see again. What did they expect, making it so easy for people to get candy for nothing? But I digress.

If you’re like me, you probably signed up for multiple clubs, but only a few of them are keepers. Trouble is, one usually only finds out what clubs one truly values a month or so after one first joins the club. So, in order to make it easier to find the true gems out there, I’ve compiled a list of three promising, fledgling clubs, which, despite their youth, hold vast potential. Enjoy.

Club 1: Wildcat Network

No, we haven’t started a radio station … yet.  This club is, in the words of president Katrina Festejo, “a mentorship club that aims to provide students with a safe and comfortable environment for students to get to know one another and share advice for the future.”

This goal is accomplished by pairing upperclassmen with underclassmen.  These pairs are made using data gathered from an online survey utilized to match people up that can really “benefit greatly with one another.”  These pairs provide each other “advice for the future” and friendship.

Club 2: Not In Our School

DVHS’s anti-bullying club, Not In Our School, is affiliated with the national organization of the same name. The club’s mission is to address bullying, hate and intolerance in schools by allowing teachers and students to work together to address and prevent these problems.

Club Vice President Jonathan Adams stated, “We watch videos and discuss statistics collected on bullying, and then brainstorm ways to make our school a safer, more accepting place for everyone. We will be putting up NIOS fliers around the school to spread the message.”

DVHS math teacher Ms. Gerdts is the club’s teacher advisor. The club currently meets every Monday after school in her classroom.

Adams also adds, “Everyone is welcome.  Our goal is to take action and stop bullying before it even starts.”

Club 3: Project SmARTS

When I asked Junior Meera Menon, President of Project SmARTS, to describe her club for me, she posed this question in her response: “How many of you have heard about arts and music funding being cut from schools across America?” Certainly, I recalled hearing something of the sort, but only after I did a little bit of Googling did I realize the scope of the problem: across the country, fine arts programs are crumbling or have already ceased to exist in many schools. Project SmARTS founders Ayushi Gupta, Menon and Christina Liu, aware of this problem long ago, decided to take action.

Seeing as DV still has thriving fine arts programs, due in part to the area’s economic prosperity, these students decided to provide “underprivileged schools in the area with free arts, dance, music and writing classes in order to raise awareness of the arts and help expose those students whose schools lack enough funds for an arts program.” Little did they know their school club would grow into a “recognized nonprofit organization that would impact the lives of so many children.”

“Last year, the organization hosted multiple successful sketching, singing, dancing and creative writing classes at our sister school, Community United, in Oakland,” Menon said.

Menon encourages anyone to join, stating “members do not necessarily have to be artists, singers or dancers; they just have to be passionate about the arts, be good role models and love working with kids.”