Amidst a jumble of volunteering, science and math clubs at Dougherty, the new Meme Culture and Internet Safety Club will be charting a new path into Dougherty at the start of the 2018-2019 school year.

Founded by sophomores Andrew Cheng, Shady Henry, Nirmal Ayyagari, John Pluth, Zackery McCrann, Dru Jackson, Michael Han and Xavier Velazco, officially known as the “Homies,” they hope to share a place with other students where they can delight in their favorite memes with each other, while also spreading knowledge of the importance of internet safety.

“We want to spread positivity around campus through the use of memes and teach people how to be safe on the internet,” Cheng said.

Adding on to what Cheng said, Pluth elaborates on the internet safety aspect of the club:
“Part of the purpose of our club is that we’re helping spread awareness on how to be a good online citizen, especially in our increasingly digital age where you have to be careful of what you do online.”

Similar to other clubs on campus, the Meme Culture and Internet Safety Club started off as a dream that all of the Homies hoped would become a reality in the future. Once the application form to start a new club was released, their hopes for such a club became a lot more tangible and real.

“Dougherty Valley needed more memes,” stated Cheng. “We had a dream one day that we would start a club about memes and we decided to act upon it and make our dreams come true.”

Despite the founders of the club doubting that many would show up to their interest meetings, their club turned out to be a lot more successful than they originally thought. Shady Henry, another one of the founders of the club, was expecting around “ten to fifteen people to show up,” when in reality, about three to four times that amount came to their first meeting.

The culture at Dougherty tends to emphasizes the importance of grades and the number of AP courses that you take. A club where students can destress and have fun by sharing memes with one another appealed to many students at Dougherty.
Sophomore Rayan Sanatkar joined the Meme Culture and Internet Safety club because it was “A new club where I wanted to have fun with friends.”

The Homies are looking forward to next year and the opportunity to grow and develop their club by connecting the people at Dougherty through their interest in memes.