The Teen Café is an afterschool hangout program for middle and high school students every Thursday from 3-5:30 p.m. at the San Ramon Library.
The program first launched on November 2, 2023. As a commonly seen program in most libraries around the area, it aims to give back to the community by providing a place for teens to hang out, study, and socialize with one another after a long day of school. On a typical day, the number of students can range from three to around twenty-five.
“It was probably four weeks ago, my friends told me about it, and how you could play games and hang out and eat snacks, so I wanted to come and see what it was like, and it’s pretty fun,” Wesley LaMarche, an eighth grade student at Iron Horse Middle School, described how he heard about the program.
Students have the choice to study, play games on the Nintendo Switch, make friendship bracelets, or play board games with friends. The most popular activity is playing on the Switch, with Super Mario Kart being the top game. Many students are wishing for more Switch games and the library is working on it.
“Mostly people stick to Mario Kart, that seems to be the most popular game,” Dana Christensen said, who is the teen services librarian at San Ramon Library.
In addition to being a student hang out spot during the school year, the Teen Café will switch to a family game night during the summer. The event will last from June 6 to August 8, every Thursday from 5-7 p.m., and will be open to all ages. Families will find themselves enjoying board games from classics, like Battleship, to newer games, like Exploding Kittens, and many more.
“We’re going to take a break in the summer because everybody’s out of school for the summer. So in the summer, it’s going to change to a family game night style. And once school starts back up again, it’ll go right back into teen café,” explained Christensen.
Christensen hasn’t received any verbal feedback about the program yet, but she believes that it is mainly positive as the numbers are growing. Students are spreading the news and encouraging their friends to come. Many think that it is worth going because they can hang out with friends and build new experiences.
“You can study here, and there’s also Mario Kart and games like that. You can make bracelets and there’s food. I’d say it’s definitely worth the time,” said LaMarche with a smile.
